Reiteration
by Phailen
Summary: Remnant. The word left a bad taste in my mouth even now, so many years after I'd woken to find myself in this living nightmare. The strong survived and the weak perished, trampled underfoot by those with the willpower to do what was necessary. My goal, then, was simple: to survive, regardless of the cost. Realistic character progression.
1. Chapter 1

Being reborn was a very humbling experience.

Rather, being a _newborn_ was a humbling experience; it was only through these memories in my head that I was aware of that. Memories of a different life. One where I was older; one where I could speak and listen; one where I could _see_.

I took my senses for granted and it wasn't until I had them ripped from me, _brutally_ and _abruptly, _that I realized how much I needed them. To go from seeing and smelling and hearing and _everything _to experiencing almost nothing… It was the single most terrifying experience I have ever undergone.

My arms and legs would not respond and my voice – once capable of forming actual words – was raw and untrained. My eyes could only make out blurry shapes and I was sure they were nothing but maleficent. Sometimes, faces would even appear close to my eyes, long enough for me to focus on them and then vanish again.

I could do _nothing_.

I didn't toss around words like _helpless_ very often, but that's exactly the state in which I found myself. The only sense I knew I retained was my ability to sense warmth. And that didn't help at all because all that told me was that it was _cold_.

So very, very _cold_.

Confused, scared and _helpless_, I did the only thing I could in this state of being: I screamed. I cried, I wailed, I fussed, until eventually my throat was so raw that I could not make any sound at all. I was in a senseless – _literally _– state of panic and nothing could calm me. That, of course, only caused the blurry, anonymous shapes to hover around me more often.

_It was never ending!_

Which in turn set me off again – a very destructive cycle.

Later, hours or days – I did not know – when I regained some semblance of rational thought and came to terms with the fact that I was useless, I realized just what had happened.

I was a baby.

It was impossible. _Impossible._ I had memories in my head of streets and cars and walking and _talking_ and _it was impossible!_

Somewhere in the back of my mind I recognized the panic attack for what it was.

All I cared about, though, was the fact _that I could not breathe _and I would not have that taken from me too!

The blurry shapes swooped in again – my breath became even shorter – and I was lost to unconsciousness in short order.

* * *

When I woke later I tried to stay calm. I did not know how old I was or why I was here or _where here was_-

'_This was not staying calm!'_

I took in a deep breath, now intimately aware of just how much damage I had done to my throat. I was also very much aware of the fact that I could only focus my vision on objects immediately in front of me and how that limited my world and how my body _would not_ move like I wanted.

It was all so _frustrating!_

I had memories of moving, of walking! I _knew _I could do it but this body- this useless, senseless, _helpless_ body-

Another deep breath.

Calm down.

Calm…

It occurred to me then that I now knew why babies cried all the time. Even with all my mental advantages, the physical limitations of my body left me with a volatile temper.

Right. So sight was out. Movement was out. I could hear… but I could not _understand_. Because of course it wouldn't be English. I didn't need my sight or my sense of smell or touch or _anything_ so why should the language-

This time I cut off the tantrum before it had a chance to even make me breathe heavier. No sense in losing my head over something I could not change. I still held out hope that this was just a really realistic, extremely terrifying dream. I would wake up in my bed once it was over and forget about it within a few days. No, this was not real. This couldn't be real. It was some obscure language I heard in a movie somewhere that they were speaking; I couldn't make out any details of the room because I hadn't seen the inside of a hospital in years, _not _because my sight was bad-

A face!

One of the blurs – humans, _they were humans and of course they were humans!_ – was in my face and I could focus!

I know my eyes went wide, surprised as I was, but I was too interested in this woman's face to care. Apparently my mind wanted to go the extra mile now, if it started making up actual features for these things to have.

The woman made a noise, drawing me from my thoughts. It was… it sounded almost like she was babbling something. Cooing, maybe? Yes, that was a good word for it - she was cooing something at me – baby-talk, I guess… that was demeaning – and doing something with my hand…

Oh, her finger.

It was more reflex than anything, grabbing the digit. The action was strangely calming. This nightmare robbed me of almost everything about my body that I took for granted and being able to _control_ it again, even if it was just a small part of it, flooded me with a profound sense of relief.

The woman's tone raised in pitch and I thought I saw a smile on her face – it was still hard to work out finer details. She sounded happy now – apparently I had done something right. I thought her eyebrows weren't furrowed anymore too.

'_Is this my mother?'_

Well, I was a baby in this place. A dream-mother, maybe? I was startling aware that this was a dream though – was that even possible inside a dream? Could you know you were… I didn't think so but it _must _be true because my memories told me I _already had a mother! This wasn't- It couldn't be! No!_

My breathing hitched and her face grew panicked – her reaction was actually what clued me in. I was able to calm myself because of it.

Immediately she looked relieved and I had an odd thought of how much fun it was seeing emotions passing over her face at my slightest provocation. People were normally more guarded…

She looked away from me then, brown hair loose about her shoulders, and said something to another blur – human – behind her. Her face withdrew but thankfully let me hold on to her finger, it was still relieving to control my body. Especially when my legs_ would not respond-_

Oh, another face.

A man this time.

'_Ah, I understand. Time to meet the parents.'_

* * *

I was probably a strange child, growing up.

After the first year of my life, I gave up on all of this being some crazy dream brought on by just the right combination of food or alcohol or whatever the hell I did to switch my brain into crazy-dreams-mode. It was a depressing realization to come to; that my past life was over. Or perhaps it had never even happened? Maybe this was some kind of crazy after life?

In the end it didn't matter – I was here now, for better or for worse. This was my life. All of my memories, the people I'd known, my skills, the things I'd done… none of it mattered anymore.

I was alone.

That knowledge left me with a rather gloomy outlook on life as a child. I was probably much quieter than I should have been and I knew I was far too introspective. I possessed the mind of an adult and I was stuck in the body of a child… How could I not be strange with two lives in my head?

The lion's share of that time lost in thought, the time I spent silent and thinking, was geared toward trying to figure out where I was. Early on, I had thought myself reborn into my own world. A different country or region of course, given the language barrier but certainly still on Earth. This after-life or whatever it was, I naively figured, could only happen on the same place I lived originally. I never even considered that I was on another world.

I was rudely disavowed of that assumption when I left the house one day in my mother's arms, just in time to see someone with _cat ears_ on the top of their head walk by.

Not on Earth, then.

Eventually, I reasoned out that I could do nothing about the where or why bits of my being here, wherever _here_ was. It was a sobering realization and served to force me into giving up on ever seeing Earth again. I was moody for days but the only thing I could think to do was end my life and see if I wound up back on Earth. I didn't have the courage to do the deed though and, admittedly, I was curious about this world. So instead, I made the decision to stay here and decided to focus on my physical skills.

It was _incredibly, horribly, indescribably _annoying to know _how _to move around and still not be capable of it.

In the end, I re-learned how to roll over, crawl, walk and run pretty quickly. It put me months ahead of the children that other parents would bring over to play with me but I didn't care. Not being able to move independently was horrible. I used the fact that I remembered how to move already to my advantage and so the only remaining part was then to teach my body what my brain already knew.

Originally, I was worried that I would learn the native language slower than my peers but those worries turned out to be unfounded. I was never ahead of anyone but I was never behind either. My vocal chords were untrained in this dialect – in _all _dialects – and this time I did not have any knowledge to speed up the learning curve either.

In addition to being quiet and introspective, I knew I was just as curious as any other developing child. Perhaps even more so. My curiosity, unlike other children, sprouted from the fact that I was in a _different world_ and somehow, someway, I had memories of an old one.

What was different here? Was I on another planet? In another solar system?

Maybe a different dimension, crazy as it sounded, was the answer. There were humans here, after all. The chances of humans evolving on another planet, the exact same way they had on Earth, must have been _infinitesimally_ small.

Unless they weren't human at all, just similar enough to fool me. I did see people do impossible things, like jumping from rooftops and healing cuts in seconds… In the end, whether or not these were humans was just as unimportant as why I was here; I was stuck here, with these maybe-humans, for better or for worse.

Their technology was another interesting point for me. Their tools were similar in purpose to their counterparts in my memories but oh so different in the details. The cars, the trains, the… _airships_ – all of them were generally similar to what I remember from Earth but all of them were incredibly different too. The fuel, in particular, struck me as odd.

_Dust_.

How did _dust_ power vehicles?

Ideas like that reminded me of just how far away from home I was.

Or rather, what I used to think of as home. This place – Vale – had rapidly become home to me. What else could it be? I gave up on all this being a crazy dream, on returning to Earth. This was my home now…

I wasn't sure how I felt about that, yet.

* * *

_Age 3_

Children were cruel creatures.

Maybe I was unaware the first time around but with an adult mindset it was depressingly obvious. They would alienate anyone they saw as different or strange with a ferocity that left me stunned.

Case in point: Faiche.

It was lunch at my daycare. The kids separated into their social groups and went about messily destroying the food in front of them. All except for me, of course. I, as per usual, sat a ways off from the other children. I was accepted into their groups, for the most part, but I was not explicitly invited.

It was good that way, I figured. I could sit back and _observe_ so I knew what I needed to do to fool the caretakers into believing I was just another child. Things like what activities I should be participating in and what skills I should be showing.

I found it stressful, imitating my peers, and the daycare attendants found it worrying. They would come and talk to me every so often, usually a couple times a day, and I would be forced to take part in some meaningless game for the following half hour.

Well, not _forced_, but if I outright refused them then they would just grow more attentive. For now I think they just believed me shy and withdrawn; I did not want to give them a reason to suspect anything more.

"My mom says you're just an animal," a boy said. His name was Liitu and he was standing over Faiche as the faunus – a human with animal characteristics, as best I could tell – hunched over his food, trying to draw less attention to himself.

"Yeah, an animal!" That one was Arbel, often he would act as Liitu's second hand whenever they bullied Faiche.

Of course, I very much doubt they saw it as bullying. It was likely just their parents' attitudes toward the faunus rubbing off on them. They were too young still to truly form any opinions of their own and impressionable enough to imitate what they saw adults doing.

Still, I didn't know any better either. Maybe the adults were right? _I_ couldn't see any differences between the faunus and the humans – excluding the obvious physical traits, of course – which led me to believe that it was just baseless discrimination to which the faunus were subjected. I couldn't confirm that though and I didn't care enough to try. My life was hard enough already, associating with the faunus would only make it harder.

It was sad, certainly, that they were treated this way, but in the end it didn't affect me. Perhaps even more depressing was the fact that the attendants _did nothing_ to stop it.

So, I turned back to my food, annoyed but otherwise unconcerned.

Children were cruel creatures.

* * *

_Age 4_

My parents died when I was four.

We were in Forever Fall Forest, a place filled to the brim with beautiful red, flowering trees. Beacon Academy, a place where I knew 'hunters' and 'huntresses' – some sort of army, maybe? – were trained, was conducting a training exercise deeper in the forest.

Many residents of the city proper used the yearly occurrence to venture into the otherwise somewhat dangerous forest. Just what made the forest dangerous was unknown to me. I figured it was just the wildlife because my parents wouldn't tell me and I couldn't ask too specific a question without it looking strange. I wasn't exactly supposed to know the forest was dangerous based upon the fact that city residents would only venture into it when Beacon held their exercises.

At any rate, we were in the forest. I was sitting under the shade of a large tree, watching my parents set out the picnic blanket and trying to figure out what the weird pressure in my head was.

It – the pressure – had been around a lot lately. I was always much more aware of it when I stopped to think on it though, almost like it was…_ responding_ to my interest. I likened it to recalling a memory that just would not quite come. An almost physical presence that would either make me feel completely revitalized or utterly exhausted when I managed to make 'contact' with it.

It frightened me, were I honest with myself.

In my old life I never had a presence in my head. It was strange. It was different. But most of all, it was an unknown. I did not know what it was or what it could do to me. All I knew was that it felt like something exerting pressure on my head, like a headache but without the pain. For all I knew it could be some kind of volatile mental illness.

But still, my curiosity recklessly drove me forward.

"_Enten!"_

I flinched, startled. Belatedly I realized my father was calling my name and apparently had been for a while.

"Sorry dad," I called as I scrambled to my feet and ran over to the food.

I still had trouble responding to my given name in this world. I had well over two decades' worth of experience responding to a different one in my old life; three years would not make that habit die completely.

My mother laughed when I jumped on the picnic blanket and landed on my knees. I for one was still ecstatic that I could do things like that and _not _have to deal with sore knees for the rest of the day.

Sometimes, being a kid was great!

We ate then, mostly in silence. My father was an electrician, as far as I could understand anyway. I did not know how electronics worked in Vale so he could have a completely different job title, I just likened it to an electrician from Earth.

Regardless of the name, though, his profession made it easier for some of my quirks to be explained away. I was a programmer in my past life and that left me with a very objective mindset. I strived to be unbiased and still do, subjective thoughts were suppressed to the point where I had almost no strong opinions on any topic.

It made me a pretty boring conversationalist. Sitting in front of a computer day in and day out did not help either.

Thankfully, though, my father was somewhat similar. Otherwise all the time I spent observing people and generally not moving at all would be much more difficult to explain away.

It was something I did a lot now, observing people. Usually I would watch other children to see just how much knowledge I should be displaying in class or forethought when presented with learning problems. Other times I would watch adults to discern more about Vale and this world – the faunus were of a particular interest to me for a time-

"Kiddoooooo!"

"Huh," I said around a mouthful of my peanut butter and jelly sandwich – at least _that _was the same!

"Whatcha thinking about," dad said, the crow's feet around his eyes crinkling as he smiled.

"Uhh," I started. Kid thoughts! I wrote a list of questions about Vale that I could use in these situations, things that would be obvious to adults but still unknown to me.

'_Like why the airships had four wings instead of two.'_

Perfect!

I opened my mouth to ask just that but stopped short when I saw an odd looking creature a small distance out into the forest.

"What's that," I said, pointing. My previous question was forgotten entirely in the face of this new being. It sort of looked like a warthog from Earth, but a little larger. It had white plates covering its face and spine; it looked generally menacing.

'_A Grimm?'_

My parents would try to scare me with stories of them from time to time, usually as a bogeyman-esque warning. Like the bogeyman, I had thought the 'Grimm' were fiction.

This thing looked like what my parents described-

"Honey," my father said as he got to his feet, the food completely forgotten. "Get Enten out of here!"

And then, my mother was hurriedly gathering me up in her arms.

"What," I tried to ask, confused. I could sense there was danger, the fear on my parents' faces told me that much. But the creature was only half as tall as they were. It could _hurt_ certainly, the wicked looking tusks told me that, but surely it would scare when presented with something so much bigger than it was.

But it did not scare. Instead it curled itself into a ball and, like some kind of demented hedgehog, threw itself at my father.

A horrified scream ripped itself from my throat when I saw him go flying by my mother and me. He impacted a tree somewhere behind me with a wet thud, then mom _screamed_.

I reflexively shut my eyes and covered my ears, my adult mind understood danger much better than a four year old mind would have. I knew now, with utter certainty, that we were in trouble; just like I knew the amount of blood on the ground was deadly to a human.

And then, I was flying through the air.

My mother made a horrible choking sound as she hit the ground followed seconds later by a garbled attempt to say my name. It sounded like she was gargling water.

'_Blood,'_ my mind realized even as panic set in.

The Grimm was charging me now and _I don't want to die!_

I was defenseless and frozen. No one else was here.

_Getupgetupgetupgetup!_

I obeyed but ended up having to dive out of the Grimm's path at the last second. One of its tusks clipped me, tearing a bloody gash down my right forearm. The air rushed out of my body in a forced gasp and I landed on my back but I knew I needed to _get up! _because that _thing _was-

I scrambled to the left and avoided it this time, getting my feet under me just as it circled around and charged me again.

Desperately, I threw my hands out in front of me. Intellectually I knew it would do nothing to stop death from coming for me but-

The presence!

A content feeling flooded my mind immediately followed by a warm, powerful sensation. Gooseflesh covered my arms and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. Time started to slow down around me; picking out every detail on the Grimm's body was so simple now. I could see every scar, every rune that glowed an angry red. Every blood stain and drop of blood that was thrown from it as it spun…

_My parents!_

My arms grew incredibly hot for a split second before the heat fled just as fast as it appeared.

The Grimm, only a few scant feet in front of me, _buckled _under a nearly translucent blue wave of force.

It was violently forced out of its self-induced roll and tossed, boneless, away from me.

I wavered on my feet, exhausted and certain I was about to fall unconscious. I didn't want to though. I needed to get help. I needed to figure out what just happened. I needed… A thud attracted my attention and I turned my failing vision toward it just in time to see the Grimm fall back to the ground and collapse, unmoving.

'_Not a fairytale after all…'_

* * *

**A/N: Revised (03/19/2016) **Figured it was time I went over this – it needed a brush up. Thanks for reading to this point! If you enjoy a story that intentionally tries to avoid most of the common fanfiction tropes, then I think you might find mine to your liking… No instant affection or conflict-less friendships. Realism is what I'm going for. Yeah, it's an OC/SI, but in my completely, utterly, honestly unbiased opinion… it's pretty awesome!

But, whether or not you keep reading, thanks for giving this a shot!

-Phailen


	2. Chapter 2

_Age 4_

My arm ended up scarring pretty badly. I had to fake panic at still being hurt when the nurse told me that my skin would be a different color there.

Other than that, I got off scot-free.

My parents though…

Both of them died in the forest.

I was upset about it. I wanted to grieve on my own, in my own way. I wanted to be left alone. I wanted to figure out what was in my head. I wanted to learn how I killed that Grimm. I wanted to _think_. I wanted to sort out how I felt about their passing because they were only _one _set of parents out of the _two _in my memories.

But I could not.

I was never without a visitor, be that a nurse or even one of the kids from my daycare.

_They would not leave me alone_.

And why would they? I was a four year old boy, I was not supposed to understand what happened. I was not supposed to understand that my parents would never-

My breathing hitched but I got it under control before the waterworks could start.

The nurse in the room looked up from her book, a welcoming expression on her face.

"Alright there, sweetie?"

I looked down and mumbled a short confirmation. Being four _sucked_.

No, _acting_ four sucked.

She needed to go and I needed to be alone.

But she never left. Not for the next few hours. I was being entertained by a set of building blocks and she would read in her chair. Eventually she would be replaced by another nurse and the process would repeat, just as it had for the last three days.

* * *

_That night_

I faked falling asleep.

It got the nurse to leave the room. Before they would leave a baby monitor-esque device with me, but that was before I started complaining of ringing sounds in my ears when the monitors were near.

I slipped out of bed and fumbled with my shoelaces but eventually managed to coordinate my fingers sufficiently enough to tie them.

My room was on the first floor and I knew going through the hospital itself would just get me caught. I needed to be alone for a while though, I needed to think.

The window in my room was outfitted with a childproof locking device; for my mind, it was a simple contraption that I only needed to – quietly – drag a chair over to deal with.

A short body was so annoying sometimes.

At any rate, I was outside the hospital in short order, outfitted in a simple t-shirt and a pair of jeans. My old clothes had been taken away so I assume they must have had blood on them.

Blood.

_I could see every blood stain on it as it spun. Closer. Closer. Closer…_

I blinked and shook my head free of the memory. It was a Grimm, I knew that now. A Boarbatusk to be specific.

The bogeyman was suddenly real… and it took my parents from me.

A frown pulled at my lips and I was ashamed to admit that my grief was not as strong as it should have been. My parents were _dead_. I should be yelling and screaming and throwing tantrums. But instead? I was just sad. Not angry. Not beyond comforting. Just… _sad._

'_I should care more than this!'_

An explosive sigh escaped me as I made it to a nearby park. There was no one in it, given how late it was, so I made my way to a bench unbothered.

I think I never allowed myself to fully trust them. My parents, that is.

An adult man inside a child's body, I was used to being independent. I was used to standing on my own; I did not need help. I did not need to be cared for or looked after; I did not need someone to make sure I didn't accidentally hurt myself. I tackled my problems with an adult's intellect and that mentality was reflected in my behavior.

As soon as I was able, I would not allow anyone else to feed me. As soon as I developed the muscles for it, I made sure diapers were not necessary. I dressed myself, entertained myself, I did not look for attention at all.

A chilling thought struck me then.

'_My parents must have thought I hated them.'_

A child that did not rely on his parents for _anything_ \- as much as a child could, anyway. Did they think I did not want them around? That I did not appreciate what they did for me? Was it normal for a child to be so independent?

I didn't know. _I didn't know_ and I had no way of finding out.

Normal or not, my behavior was unacceptable. I did appreciate them. I was grateful _beyond words_ that they took care of me when I could not. It was fear that drove me to be self-sufficient because being so dependent on someone was horrifying to me… Unfortunately, I overlooked their feelings in the process.

'_Mom, Dad. I'm sorry.'_

I hung my head slightly, fiddling with my fingers.

'_I should have shown you I cared. Because I do!'_

And I did, truly. I was so caught up in becoming self-sufficient, in learning about this world, in studying other people as gauges for my progress that my oh-so-superior mind forgot that I was _supposed_ to be dependent. It forgot that I was supposed to be learning. That I was supposed to be a bother. That I needed to be looked after.

Another sigh escaped my lips and I decided, with a decisive nod, that it was time to stop brooding. Negativity was poisonous and the playground swing-set was only a short distance from my bench… It was long past time to let my mind do something it had never done in this world.

Be a kid.

* * *

_One year later – age 5_

The orphanage grew quiet when they entered. A potential adopter – it was always quiet when someone came in looking for a kid. _This _quiet though… this quiet was different. The kids did not smile brightly, they did not push and shove to meet these new visitors.

They were wary.

The reason? Our visitors were faunus.

Social training ran deep in the Vale.

"Can I help you," the matron asked, a strained smile on her face.

Slowly, the kids returned to playing with their toys. They were used to this now, most of them anyway. Faunus adopters would be turned away. It happened _every _time. Even I, who had only been in the orphanage for a few months, knew it was routine now.

I sat, away from the other kids as per usual, watching the events in front of me transpire. My peers likely found it boring, but perception was something learned through experience. I found it interesting to observe.

This couple was not well off, their clothes were frayed and well loved; still, they had clearly made an effort to look nice. The man was balding slightly and had a thin frame, his fingers would twitch every so often and he possessed a slightly hunched posture. He looked generally beaten down, like many faunus I saw.

The woman had her hair pulled back into a bun; she had a musculature that the man lacked. The results of a physical means of living, perhaps? Maybe she was a retired huntress. She was able to hide her thoughts behind a neutral expression but the way her eyes would dart around the room spoke to me of her nerves.

"Yes," the man started, dog ears on his head perking up slightly at being addressed. "We're looking to adopt."

The matron's smile grew a little more strained and I saw the female visitor's eyes narrow. She likely knew what was coming. Her companion still had a hopeful look on his face, though it was tempered by a slight furrowing of his brow. At least he was guarded, it would make seeing them walk out dejected a little easier.

"Have you submitted the proper forms?"

The man nodded and the woman spoke up: "They're in the city's records."

Ah, _the forms_. It was the point at which most – if not all – faunus were turned down.

I knew it was just a background check. Past crimes, ability to care for the child, living location, contact information, references. That kind of thing. Simple to pass for most people looking to adopt in Vale.

Unfortunately there was so very little oversight on the approval process that discrimination was allowed to fester and grow freely. Most orphanages had the authority to turn down applicants on their own and, if they were anything like mine, they abused it eagerly and readily. There was an appeals process, if the form was to be believed, but I doubted the faunus ever got very far in it.

The matron nodded. "Then please follow me. We'll go look them up in the back room."

The couple disappeared with her behind her office doors but I knew they would be leaving, heads hung low, in just a few minutes.

It was no wonder the Grimm were so strong, given they fed on negativity. This city was a cesspool of it.

Humans were cruel creatures.

* * *

_A few months later_

At five and a half years of age, I grew tired of living in the orphanage.

The outgoing kids usually got adopted and, though I had some interest from adopters, I was not social enough to attract a new set of parents. It was very awkward to feign being something you are not, to fool someone into believing you a child so they would make a life-long commitment to caring for you.

I hated the deception. But I hated the orphanage more.

It was difficult to describe the atmosphere that pervaded day to day life here. Watching potential adopters come and go, only to be ignored time after time… It rattled even me; I couldn't imagine what the older kids – the ones who had been here longer – felt like.

Unwanted. Uncared for. Unimportant.

So many words to describe the feeling but none quite did it justice. The closest one I could come up with was _bleak_.

That in mind, I slipped away from the rest of the kids one day, when it was time for our allotted hour of outside playtime. Once everyone was outside, I entered the matron's office and went about accessing her computer – or what passed for one in this world, anyway.

I would call it a terminal, more than anything. It reminded me of an old world ATM machine; it was a little shorter and had a chair in front of it but the general structure was the same.

I sat down and prodded the machine into activity. It was password protected but that was alright, there were always ways around things like that.

A short search revealed the power button and I promptly went about restarting the machine without hesitation. Hope she didn't mind losing what she was working on… if it was anything like my past life, the things currently being held in the more dynamic sort of memory would be wiped clean.

At any rate, it restarted. I watched carefully, hoping for a key or a combination of keys that I could press to get into the equivalent of this world's BIOS.

The terminal did not disappoint and, after another restart so I could push the keys at the right time during startup, I was happily navigating through the basic input/output system of the machine. It, like computers in my past life, allowed me to start it in 'safe mode'.

I would not have any extraneous applications but I did not need them anyway. Just the basics.

Finding the potential adopters' applications was a bit of work but after scouring the matron's messages I was able to find out that she kept all the files saved locally. That is – on the terminal's memory itself.

Inefficient. Unless they had a back-up somewhere, on another terminal-

I was getting side tracked. It was interesting to see this world's electronics at work but I had a task that needed completing before the play hour was over. That in mind, I directed the terminal to the adopters' applications and allowed a grin to form on my face when the machine obeyed without a single hiccup – you never knew with safe mode.

My expression brightened further when I saw that the matron appended 'FAUNUS' to the end of all the application names that, presumably, belonged to faunus. It was so convenient when people made my life easier and I was definitely going to enjoy that while it lasted... Because if I did, in fact, get adopted by a faunus family then my life would probably only become more difficult from that point on.

Still, I wanted it to happen. I wanted a faunus to adopt me. My exact reasons for that were really only half formed but the basis of it was that I was curious. It might be an impulsive decision, especially because my adopters would presumably be in my life for the next several decades, but I wanted to _know_.

I wanted to know what made them different from humans. I wanted to know what I couldn't see because aside from the obvious physical differences, I found the faunus to be the exact same as humans.

So what made them different? Were they some kind of werewolf-like creature? Did they abduct children in the dead of night? Were they past invaders of some sort?

Somehow I doubted it was so dramatic. Humanity proved to be just as petty here as it was on Earth and mob mentality was just as much as plague on Remnant as it was in my past life. If _everyone _did it, then no one questioned it.

Still, I had to be sure.

Eventually I narrowed down the faunus applications until just one was left.

They were panda faunus. I had never seen any before so I could only guess that they were rare.

"Luna and Mars Melkweg," I muttered to myself. They lived on the edge of Vale, near the Forever Fall Forest; a place that I was surprisingly eager to return to. It was a dangerous area, to be certain, but that danger made it relatively empty. I wanted to experiment with my Aura more and that was something I could not do in the city.

As I changed their application status to 'Accepted' I could not help but think I was using them. And in a way, I was. I was using their whereabouts to further my own goals and their faunus nature to sate my curiosity.

Did it really matter, though?

I was giving them what they wanted: a child.

A strange child, perhaps. But I would not neglect them, not like I had my parents.

'_I won't! Not again.'_

My mind made up, I saved their now approved application and went about shutting down the machine so I could restart it normally – mustn't let the matron know anything was different, after all.

An application caught my eye before I could finish though…

'_ApprovalAlert huh?'_

With such an obvious name it was clear to me what it did. I knew first hand that developers often had to make things as simple as possible for their users – _'And didn't that sound arrogant.' _– so I started it up without a second thought.

Thankfully, the terminal cooperated despite being so restricted. I really didn't want to wipe the matron's password; that would be too suspicious. Not to mention that my ignorance with Remnant's technology meant permanently damaging the machine was always a possibility.

No, the less I had to change on the terminal, the better.

'_Now let's make someone's day.'_

* * *

_One week later_

The orphanage grew quiet again and I looked up from my book to find that Luna and Mars had arrived.

They were overweight, not obese but not average either. Two black rimmed, white ears were perched on top of their heads and they had black circles around their eyes, much like the animal I remember from Earth. They both had black hair, Luna's reached down to her chin and Mars' was cut short, almost a buzz cut.

Like so many other faunus, their clothes were well used and appeared to be well loved. I glimpsed Mars' hands for a brief moment and found them to be well callused, suggesting a physical livelihood; from their application, I knew he was a carpenter.

Luna addressed the matron first, her voice soft and deeper than what most other women possessed.

"Excuse me, we received a notification that we were approved here?"

Her voice ended in a higher pitch and she was worrying her lip between her teeth.

'_She wears her heart on her arm.'_

The look of surprise that crossed the matron's face almost had me grinning. Seeing my plan begin to work as I expected was satisfying. I laid my book down on my lap.

"Oh! Um, let me just check my records…" She was getting up now, walking toward her office _without inviting them_. Damn.

"She's not taking them to her office," I whispered to the child nearest me.

I had been – hopefully – too quiet to hear. However, the commotion I sparked was _not _too quiet to hear. The children, simple and trusting as they were, latched on to my observation. Already there were kids asking the matron why she was not taking the new people with her.

The woman in question looked incredibly put-upon.

'_Good.'_

I bore her no ill will, but I did not want my plan to fail before it had a chance to succeed.

Mars put his hand on Luna's shoulder, a show of support, if the way the tension fled from her muscles was any indication.

"We brought a copy of the message. We can discuss it in your office." He said it with a smile on his face but his eyes were staring the matron down, unblinking. His tone was that of a man who would not tolerant any nonsense.

'_Authoritative,'_ I noted idly.

The woman in question stammered before nodding and reluctantly inviting them in.

* * *

_Four years later – age nine_

I was very limited in what I could do with my time as a child.

Playing with children's toys did not interest me. My school courses were – for the most part – just a review of what I already knew. I did not have the same ability to go wherever I wanted, whenever it suited me anymore either.

Perhaps worst of all, though, was the utter lack of technology in the day-to-day life of Vale's citizens.

Terminals were rare, often only available in libraries or on school campuses. Normally that wouldn't be an issue but having faunus parents was such a challenge in and of itself that I usually avoided thinking about at all costs.

Idiotic, prejudiced people got me worked up so easily…

Scrolls – this world's closest equivalent of a cell phone – were no more readily available than terminals. They were so costly that often people just went without them. As far as I knew, the social elite, huntresses and hunters were the only ones who regularly carried them.

The lack of technology to stimulate me left me bored and frustrated in equal parts, usually leading me to experiment with the only interesting outlet left for me.

My Aura.

It was an entity that still fascinated me, despite how mundane it was to this world's residents.

Everyone had one, after all. And when everyone possessed an Aura, the fact that _you_ did as well isn't so interesting.

I was not originally of this world, though; my Aura fascinated me.

So I studied it.

I pushed it from my body and pulled it back in. I tried moving things with it. I tried suppressing it completely. I tried to break things with it. I tried to mend things with it (usually _because _I tried to break things with it). I even tried to fly with it.

I wasn't always successful but I learned a lot about what I could do with it and exhausted myself many times in the process. It seemed to be solidly tied to my energy levels; physical and mental exhaustion were the consequences of expending too much of my Aura.

Because of this time experimenting, I grew very familiar with it.

It wasn't until I saw a huntress use her Aura that I had an excuse to ask my parents about it.

It was actually through them I learned that everyone had an Aura and that if an Aura was depleted, people would start to get injured. I also learned that each one is different; where mine was capable of exerting force upon my surroundings, another's might be capable of summoning fire.

Lastly, most importantly, I learned that very few people had the ability to utilize and control their Aura.

So apparently I was special in that.

My parents told me that the people who could control their Aura usually became hunters and I left it at that. My questions were drawing confused looks from them and I wasn't quite ready yet to tell them about my experimentation.

I had a feeling they knew anyway; maybe not the true extent of what I was capable of with my Aura, but certainly the fact that I could control it.

Parts of that talk – the huntresses and hunters bit – got me thinking about my purpose on this world.

Why was I here?

What did I want to do?

I had no reason to become a hunter – it was a dangerous career. Some part of me wanted to do it anyway, the selfless part that was usually crushed underneath my habit of staying socially withdrawn, but my logical mind took over and stamped that desire out completely.

After all, why would I want to protect the same people that treated my parents like trash?

Imagine my surprise when I worked out that the animosity leveled at the faunus was baseless. When I discovered that they were just humans with some extra features, night vision and odd food cravings.

No, fools that couldn't see beyond a physical difference so insignificant as animal ears weren't worth _anything_. Better they be taken down by Grimm than continue to poison Vale with their hatred.

So that solidly ruled out being a hunter, I turned instead to my interest in technology.

I wouldn't mind being a programmer in this world, even if finding a device that ran software was a rare occurrence. But to make that happen I would need a Scroll of my own.

Which brought me back to the present…

The sun was high in the sky and people were out and about on the streets of Vale. My dad and I were heading for a specialty store in the commercial district, one that usually catered to only Beacon Academy students and the social elite.

I was going to get a Scroll.

It took me two years of saving up my allowances and the money I earned by doing little tasks for my neighbors. Raking leaves, washing cars, cleaning up yards and other jobs of that nature were what I spent most of my time on when I wasn't in school.

Early in the two year period, my parents would ask me about the Scroll I wanted and if I was really sure I wanted to spend my money on it. I appreciated the gesture for what it was rather than take offense. They were genuinely concerned that I would end up wasting my money; Scrolls were seen as adult tools in Vale, after all. They were meant to exchange information, make jobs easier and coordinate with co-workers. What use would a child have for it?

Thankfully, after the first year had passed they recognized my interest as genuine and stopped asking. It probably helped that I told them about my desire to 'make Scroll things' when I grew up too.

"Alright there, son?"

"Yeah," I responded, childish excitement was starting to well up in me despite my adult mind. I let myself grin. "Just excited!"

Dad laughed. "I believe it. You spent two years working for this! I don't know what Melanie is going to do without you cleaning up after her dogs."

"I'll still do it," I shrugged. "She's old. She needs help."

He smiled down at me and I returned the gesture. After a moment he put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me into a half hug. "I'm proud of you, son. Your mother and I love you so much."

I didn't say anything but nothing really needed to be said.

It was easier now, accepting compliments from my parents. When they first adopted me, they would praise me constantly. Every tiny achievement would be lauded as an amazing act of genius. That perfect grade on the multiplication test wasn't even remotely hard for me to attain. To have someone treat it like it was… It was incredibly awkward for me, so much that I started to hide my accomplishments from them simply because I didn't _need _praise for things I already knew how to do.

Something must have clued them in though because they toned it down around when I turned six. Now, their compliments were usually focused on my character, my morals or something similar. Still encouragement, but I was able to accept them for the loving gestures that they were.

Being an adult in a child's body was surprisingly difficult.

"Here we are!"

I stopped abruptly, jerked from my thoughts as I was, and found that we were indeed in front of _Vale Electronics_.

I grinned and started walking toward the door. "Let's go!"

"Actually son," he said with a somber smile on his face. "I'll wait out here. Will you be alright by yourself?"

My brow furrowed. He was in a good mood up until now, did he think the salespeople would kick us out because he was a faunus?

That was actually a valid concern, sadly enough.

"Why?"

He sighed, looking sad, frustrated and angry all at once. "Some people are afraid of faunus; I don't want to keep you from getting your Scroll."

Still, through all the negativity, he managed a smile for me.

'_**No.**__ I'm not about to allow some simpleton's bigoted views get this man down. He's worth at least ten of them!'_

"Then they can just talk to me," I said as I grabbed his arm and pulled him to the door. A little application of my Aura might have been involved in getting him to move.

I marched up to the service desk – no one was waiting in line, thankfully.

"Hey Miss? Can you show us where your Scrolls are?"

The woman looked at me and then glanced at Mars. A frown spread across her lips even as I noticed a few other guests start to throw dirty looks at us.

"I'm sorry sir," she said. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave the premises."

"Why," I asked.

"This store does not serve faunus," she said, glancing at me. "I suggest you find a store more _suited_ to-"

"Why don't you serve faunus," I said, a single eyebrow arched in confusion.

"Come on, Enten," dad said quietly. "We can find a different store."

I hated that a little discrimination turned this normally strong willed man into a person willing to take such verbal abuse. I _hated _that.

"Faunus are criminals and vagabonds," the woman behind the counter said, dismissive now. She paused for a moment. "I wouldn't expect a child to understa-"

Mars frowned. "I'll not have you putting ideas into my son's-"

"Your son," the woman repeated, incredulous.

"Yes, _my son_. A boy far too kind to be listening to _you_."

They were both angry now. I needed to defuse the situation I had inadvertently caused – _so stupid! _– before it escalated further.

But then, the woman turned to me, her lips in a firm line. "I am sorry for you. Having a _faunus_ for a parent-"

'_Oh, this bitch was going down.'_

I barely stopped myself from seeing just how powerful a blast of force my Aura could produce and instead, turned to my father. He looked just as angry as me, absolute fury was written into every hard line on his frowning face.

"Dad," I said, firmly enough to gain the attention of both he and the idiot behind the counter. "I want to leave this store. I didn't know they allowed bigoted fools to work here."

Wordy, maybe, but I didn't care at this point.

Dad turned and led me out of the store without any further comments, the dolt was spluttering something behind us but we ignored her. His shoulders were set into a rigid line and – other than the attendant – complete silence followed in our wake.

Only once we were outside and several blocks away from the store did he speak.

"I'm sorry you had to hear that."

I glanced at him, finding that he just looked _tired_ now. I felt guilty, because I was partially to blame for that. Mostly though, I felt indignant. I felt powerless. What would it take to get people to _listen_?

"It's not your fault," I offered up simply. Then, because I was still a child and supposed to be fixated on getting a scroll: "Are there any other shops that sell Scrolls?"

He laughed and some of the weariness left his face.

It was a small consolation prize, but it was something.

* * *

_Three years later, age twelve_

My parents adopted me, I would learn later, because my mother was unable to bear children.

Or rather, because my parents were faunus and the operation that would allow Luna to bear children was barred to them.

Or so I thought.

One day, when I was ten, my father pulled me aside while my mother was out and about and asked me how I felt about getting a younger sibling.

I was understandably surprised… Dad told me that Mom was off today, getting prepared for a surgery that would allow her to have babies.

He did not know that _I_ knew the surgery in question used to be beyond them, thus I did not ask how it was suddenly happening.

But that conversation happened just about eighteen months ago, in the here and now…

"Peekaboo!"

The baby in front of me, Phoebe, cackled madly when my hands sprung apart. She obediently grew quiet again when I put them back in front of my face.

"Peekaboo!"

"Enten," mom said, smiling over Phoebe's giggling. "Come over here would you? I've almost got the blanket set out."

"Sure mom," I said, carefully picking up my baby sister as I did. She had the same panda-esque markings around her eyes and the ears on top of her head.

She was indescribably cute.

I slowly picked my way over to my parents. We were on a cliff overlooking the Forever Fall Forest with several other families from Vale that we knew simply because they were faunus.

It was that time of year again, Beacon Academy's training exercises in the forest. This time it lined up with a lunar eclipse and many people had come out to enjoy the spectacle away from the city's light pollution.

I handed Phoebe off to Dad and took a seat next to Mom.

"How are you doing with your Scroll apes?"

"Apps, mom," I said with a roll of my eyes. "And they're going well. The book on D-code helps a lot!"

D-code, short for Dust-code. It was Vale's programming language of choice. It was logically similar to the programmatic languages I used to know but syntactically very different. Without something like the internet to use a reference, the book they had gotten me for my birthday was a life saver.

"Well," she hummed, "I still think it's amazing you can even make any sense out of it at all!"

She reached over and pinched my cheek. "My boy is such a genius!"

I snorted and shrugged her off even as she chuckled.

Phoebe was starting to grow increasingly fussy as the moon rose. Frankly, I thought it was amazing she was still up at all.

My parents ended up collecting their blanket when she started to wail, there were still two other faunus families on the clifftop but we certainly weren't the first to leave.

It was as we were saying our goodbyes to those families that I started hearing odd sounds coming from the woods behind us. Growls, yips and human-sounding yelling to be specific.

I turned, dread slowly working its way down my spine, just in time to see a Beowolf burst into the clearing.

Time slowed down then.

It roared and charged before the faunus in the clearing had even fully registered its presence.

My feet were moving forward before I even thought about what I was doing, but my mind was a complete mess of jumbled thoughts anyway.

'_Not-a-fighter__. Don't. Kill. Blood. PROTECT.'_

Vaguely, I heard dad call my name even as I planted my feet and thrust my arm forward.

Pure force burst from it and thundered across the distance between the Grimm and I. My attack reached it in a split second and set it tumbling back to the ground.

As one, the group of people held their breath and stilled in absolute surprise, only to let out despairing noises when the creature shook its head and lifted itself up.

I blinked, still stupidly standing in the same pose, and then it was on me.

The Grimm's claws just about hit me as I stumbled away from them, only narrowly avoiding another scar in the process.

'_Why is it so __**tall**__?'_

It tried to smash me into the ground with its foot, but I rolled away from that too, somehow managing to live another second.

And then, my dad was there.

He tackled the thing, taking it off its feet, his face red with rage.

People were screaming. They were _screaming_ incoherently. Too many words to understand, too jumbled.

I scrambled back to my feet, avoided mom's desperate grasp, and ran to where my dad and another faunus were grappling with the Grimm.

They were losing. Badly.

The other faunus, a man by the name of Nicolai, was thrown off of the Grimm. His body, bloodied and unmoving, landed next to me.

And then, the Beowolf put its claw through my dad's shoulder.

"_Nooo!"_

I don't know who screamed. My vision was blurry – tears, my mind registered – as I drew my arm back and gathered my Aura again. The Grimm was on top of him now and claws were flashing and there was so much _blood_!

_I could see every blood stain on it as it spun. Closer. Closer. Closer…_

Not again.

"_Not again!"_

I sprinted forward, reaching the beast in a few too-long seconds, and threw my fist forward.

The punch caught the creature on its flank and a gunshot sounded in the clearing. The Grimm was bodily lifted off of my dad – _blood, claw marks, no arm, ribs exposed_, _entrails_ – and thrown deeper into the forest.

I collapsed to my knees and violently threw up the food I had eaten earlier that day. My vision was fading again. Just like last time.

_Just like last time._

"So… weak," I muttered, before my vision faded completely.

* * *

**A/N: **(01/12/2016) Chapter numero dos, all cleaned up and made pretty-like! And, for the record, I do not own SnapChat… at all.

Happy reading!

-Phailen


	3. Chapter 3

_Two years later, age 14_

"Alright class," the instructor called, attracting his students' attention. "That's enough for today. Cool off and have a great night!"

I let my muscles relax and, across from me, Yang Xiao Long did as well.

"Nice spar, partner," she said, a grin on her face as she offered me a fist bump.

I reciprocated the gesture, thinking back on the fight. "Even again," I muttered to her, disbelief lacing my voice.

"I'm pretty sure I hit you more," she said, thumbing her nose as she started her stretches.

"I'm pretty sure you fail at math," I quipped, thumbing my nose back at her as I began mine.

She laughed and we fell silent, both focused on our cool down routines.

"So," she said some time later, breathless as she finished a stretch with a degree of flexibility that I couldn't even get close to. "I still think you should join up at Signal."

I sighed.

"I know," she said quickly. "Your mother and your sister need you. I get that. That's totally cool.

"But if you want… you can just take some of the extra classes. After the school day ends, you know?"

I glanced at her as I straightened, finishing my last stretch just as she finished hers'. We made our way over to the lockers together; it was winter in Vale and heavy coverings were necessary.

"That still doesn't account for the ocean in between Vale and Patch," I said dryly.

"There's a tunnel," she argued. "It's totally possible!"

"Maybe," I said noncommittally as I pulled my coat on – a hand-me-down from our neighbor's son. Once upon a time, it was navy blue, now the color had faded to a lighter shade through heavy use. Next to Yang's crisp Signal jacket, I probably looked like a hobo.

I snorted, amused by the thought, and headed for the door.

"Oh come on," she said as we walked out of the dojo. "How else are you gonna build a weapon?"

I glanced reflexively at her bracers; rather, I glanced at the part of her coat covering her bracers. That was true…

Ever since my father was killed by Grimm, _again_-

_I'll kill them all. Every last-_

I started training myself to be able to fight better. The night of that lunar eclipse was a sudden and shocking wake-up call – if I wanted to live a happy life in this far-more-dangerous world then I needed the strength to defend myself. The strength to defend my loved ones. Going un-noticed would not work, it was either fight or die.

To that end, I now worked with my Aura every night before bed. I took martial arts classes on Saturdays. I even started reading up on any piece of information I could find regarding Beacon, Signal and every huntress and hunter that did something noteworthy enough to be put in a book.

Of course, I also had to start working to support mom and Phoebe. Our neighbors helped when they could, but some of them were just as bad off as us; we could not rely on them. I now spent most days working as a stocker for a local grocery store, in lieu of attending school.

"Maybe," I said neutrally.

Yang scoffed. "Are you worried about falling behind? You can keep up with me and I'm one of the best!"

"Really," I said, poking a faded bruise on her cheek. It was still incredible to me, seeing Aura heal simple injuries like that. Bruises and scrapes would disappear before my eyes and small cuts were barely around long enough to see at all.

She jerked away from me reflexively and stuck her tongue out.

"Think on it," she said as she swung a leg over Bumblebee, her motorcycle.

I was completely jealous of it, not that I'd ever tell her that. She was a teenage girl and I had a hunch she would tease me for it endlessly.

"I will," I said, turning away and waving over my shoulder. "Later Yang!"

I wasn't completely certain I wanted to become a hunter. That would mean leaving mom and Phoebe on their own while I was away at school. It would certainly be the easiest way to gain strength, but it might not be the best for my family.

At the same time, I knew I needed a weapon if I wanted to fight on par with the Grimm. The Signal class would be useful. And attending it didn't mean I had to attend Beacon too. If I could find a way to go to it and not take away from my familial responsibilities…

My Scroll chimed and I pulled the device out, slightly annoyed at having to draw my hands out of my coat pockets.

The annoyance instantly faded when I saw the message waiting for me. It was a good one.

The first application I made, QuikPik, had just hit one hundred downloads on Beacon's virtual Quill – because apparently that was their name for _apps – _Library. It was essentially the same thing as Earth's Snapchat and my attempt to make Scrolls more than just business tools.

"Enten!"

I turned just in time to see Yang pull up beside me on Bumblebee.

'_How had I missed the noise?'_

Bumblebee was not quiet nor was it small; add to that the fact that it was a garish yellow in color and I realized that I must have grown so used to its racket that I instinctually phased it out.

"Want a ride," she asked once she stopped, offering me a helmet.

I thought for a moment, declining to mention the rose decals, blood red in color, intermixed with strawberries on the helmet and suppressed the reflexive impulse to decline because it would inconvenience her. Instead, I asked: "You sure? I live on the edge of the city, near Forever Fall Forest."

She nodded without hesitation, grinning at me from under her visor. "That's kinda on my way anyway. What's a ten minute detour compared to the hour long ride back home?"

Well, she offered and I wasn't about to turn down a ride home when the walk took me nearly an hour by itself.

"You know," I said as I accepted the helmet and climbed on behind her. "It never occurred to me until now… How are you legally driving this thing?"

She grinned at me over her shoulder and put a finger to her lips before flooring it.

'_Why am I not surprised…'_

* * *

_One year later – age 15_

I straightened, throwing my arms up over my head in a stretch to try and work out the kinks in my back. Pulling weeds was far from a glamorous task, but they needed to go if the family garden was to flourish.

I turned to go back inside the house and fiddled with the device on my right forearm, repositioning it so it didn't dig into the skin near my elbow so much.

'_Something I'll have to ask the instructor about next class.'_

The device was my weapon. It consisted, in its dormant state, of two white bands that rested around my wrist and just below my elbow. Stretching between the bands was a thick column of metal, also white in color.

It was _Aegis_.

I was absurdly proud when I finally got it to expand and collapse with the flip of a switch on my wrist; it made the money spent to get me into the early-evening classes at Signal all seem worth it.

Expanded, Aegiswas a kite shield that was nearly as wide as I was and half as tall. Right now it was unadorned, a simple shield, but hopefully that would change in the future.

I had plenty of ideas as far as adding some offensive power to it went – Yang's younger sister, Ruby Rose had been a great help in that department. The girl was a natural weaponsmith and, despite having just started at Signal two months ago, was already much better than I was.

My Scroll chimed and I pulled it from my jean pocket to see that I had a message from another advertiser, this one for a sports drink of some kind.

It was pretty common for me to receive messages like that one now. QuikPik was a hit at Beacon Academy and the companies that wanted to attract its students saw my app as the perfect medium.

I already had enough existing contracts though and I didn't want to insert any additional ads into the software – there was a fine line between having an acceptable amount of them and too many.

Thinking about my app – calling it a quill was far too cheesy for my tastes – led me to thinking about the money I was able to generate with it. It was a supplemental income, certainly, I still worked at the grocery store and my mother still picked up any work she could find as well; it was enough to pay for my Signal class though, a little more than enough actually. The Melkwegs now had a weekly family outing to _The Fox and the Hare_, a faunus-friendly restaurant not far from our home.

"Oh, sweetie," mom said as she caught sight of me. She had a pile of clothing in her arms and I didn't recognize any of it as ours'. A repair job maybe? She _was_ pretty good at sewing. "Can you go get Phoebe?"

I glanced at the clock.

'_5:46. Is she still at the park?'_

"Sure," I said. "Are we still going out tonight?"

It was Sunday, usually the day we had dinner at _The Fox and the Hare_, but that changed depending on what work mom found.

She shook her head. "Not today. Sorry sweetheart – I know how much you like going out."

"No worries," I said, nonchalant. "Life throws unexpected surprises at you, sometimes."

Mother laughed. "Isn't that true."

Silence descended upon us then and mom sighed. I was about to turn toward the door when she reached out and gave me an impulsive hug.

"Mom," I asked, uncertain. I was taller than her now, almost an entire head taller actually. She had her face pressed into my shoulder but her shoulders weren't shaking.

'_No tears then, at least'_

I was horrible with crying women, in this life and my past one.

She pulled back with a deep inhale and put her hand on my cheek.

"You're growing up so fast," she said quietly. "I don't know what we'd do without you."

I was struck speechless by the sincerity in voice but she didn't seem to care that I could only answer her with stammering.

"Go on then," mom said, a smile on her face. She kissed my cheek and released me completely.

"Uh, see you when I get back," I said once I had gathered my wits, turning toward the door.

"And don't let her talk you into letting her stay!"

I snorted and called back to her in acknowledgement, shutting the door to the house behind me.

It would probably happen anyway; I could not say no to that girl if she pushed me on something. It was like she knew exactly what buttons to push to get her way.

Without dad, she looked up to me as her primary male role model. It was a heavy responsibility that caught me by complete surprise when I realized what she was doing. She would watch and observe me when she was younger – she still did it now, from time to time. In most situations she imitated what mom did, but sometimes, I saw myself in her actions.

Case in point: I went to pick her up from a friend's house once when she was three. This friend was a human so the family lived further in the city, away from areas that were more accepting of faunus.

Of course, Phoebe was only a girl of three at the time and adults, no matter how prejudiced, would not go after a child.

The human children, however, were a problem. They learned from watching their parents and when they saw adult faunus get treated like trash, they figured faunus kids were supposed to get treated like trash too.

Anyway, I was just getting to the house when I saw a human child harassing Phoebe and her friend. They were in the front yard, playing with chalk on the driveway, and the boy had just dumped his water all over whatever they had drawn.

Phoebe's friend immediately burst into tears and started running for the house, but Phoebe waited until the boy started running and grabbed one of his shoelaces.

The kid fell in the grass, unharmed but certainly shocked. He was just picking himself up when I reached the driveway. Between myself and the friend's parents, we were able to get an apology from the boy and the boy's parents – who were neighbors – as well.

Through it all Phoebe's face was strangely blank, but the second she and I had left her friend's house, she burst into giggles. The rest of the trip home was spent recanting every detail of the incident and the boy's face as he apologized.

What struck me about the incident most was the similarity to another one that had occurred just days before.

The entire family was walking downtown and someone roughly shouldered his way by mom. She stumbled but kept smiling as she spoke to Phoebe; I used a very small amount of my Aura to trip the asshole while they were distracted. When the man accused us of tripping him I played innocent and managed to make him look like an idiot in the process – we were well over fifteen feet away from him when he fell.

I had thought that Phoebe hadn't seen me do anything, but apparently she was sneakier than I gave her credit for.

A childish scream – playful, not fearful – broke me from my thoughts and informed me that I was at my destination: the park. It was a simple setup that consisted of a bare metal swingset, a few slides and a sandbox.

Searching the area, I found my sister playing with two other children in the aforementioned sandbox. An elderly faunus, a woman by the name of Lucia Grebble, was sitting nearby on a bench. She would watch the children when they played in the park on Sundays, her effort to help take some pressure off of the faunus parents' shoulders.

"Hey Mrs. G.," I called when I got close enough.

She looked up from her crossword. "Enten," she said, a smile on her face. "I swear you're getting taller every time I see you."

I grinned. "Maybe you're just getting shorter?"

"I certainly hope not," she chucked. "I already have enough trouble trying to reach tall shelves. I don't need any more!"

I smiled and a companionable silence fell over us. Phoebe was in the middle of a game of some kind and I didn't want to interrupt her.

"What's that there, on your arm?"

"This," I asked, bringing Aegis' bands up for her inspection. "It's Aegis, my shield."

"Oh," she exclaimed when I expanded it for her. One of her hands rose to cover her mouth for a moment. "I didn't know you were training to be a hunter!"

I shook my head, watching as Phoebe picked up a bucket of sand and threw it into the pile she and the other kids were making. "I'm not," I verbalized. "I just want to be able fight if… well, if there's a next time."

"Oh, dear," she said quietly, laying a hand on my left arm – the one without the shield. "The memories never fade, but the pain will, given time."

"Thanks," I said, equally quiet. I was surprisingly affected by my late father's passing, even now, regardless of my mental maturity. I spent several sleepless nights wondering what I could have done differently, how I could have saved him.

I had the power, but I was still so _useless_ that night.

-_ claw marks, no arm, ribs exposed –_

"_Enten_," I suddenly heard Phoebe gasp. "_What_ is _that?!_"

She was in front of me now. Her knees and hands were absolutely covered in sand; she even had some on her face…

"What, this," I asked, lifting Aegis up in front of her eyes.

"Yes," she huffed, stamping her foot and pulling the shield down below her head so she could glare at me. It lost absolutely all of its animosity given the black rings around her eyes, though.

"Well it's a shield, silly!"

"Enten!"

"It's the shield I made," I laughed. "It's what I've been working on at those extra classes… Now why don't you say goodbye to your friends?"

She turned and belted off the quickest _'bye!'_ I had ever heard before promptly turning back to me.

"Are you gonna be a hunter? Can you use Aura? Do you know hunters? Oh! Or a huntress?! I want to be a huntress! _Wait! Have you seen Beacon!?_"

I laughed again, wondering where this interest had come from. She never told me anything about wanting to be a huntress.

"Alright alright, slow down!" I waited for her to take a breath. "What's with the sudden interest in being a huntress?"

"Because they're _awesome_," she exclaimed, throwing her hands into the air. "Emilie's dad is a hunter and he can _fly_!"

The edge of my lips quirked up; that was an exaggeration. I'm pretty sure I knew of the hunter in question.

"Why are they awesome?"

"Because they protect people," she nodded. "Is that why you're gonna be a hunter?"

"Maybe," I said. Opening up the can of worms that came with telling her I wasn't going to be a hunter was not on my list of things to do tonight. I fell into silence instead.

"You're gonna be a good one," she said simply. "You protect mama and me. And now you can protect everyone!"

"Everyone? Even the people you don't like?"

She frowned. "Well, yeah! They're still people!"

I hummed, idly wondering if she would still think that when she was older. Or maybe I was just an asshole.

"They are," she insisted, pouting now.

I laughed. "Of course they are."

She grunted and turned her head away from me. "They're meanies sometimes," she said then, quieter. "But that's 'cause they don't got someone like you."

"Have," I corrected. "And what do you mean?"

"They're mean 'cause," she furrowed her eyebrows, trying to think of the right words, probably. "'Cause they don't go-_have_ a big brother!"

It was sweet that she thought so much of me. I picked her up, ignoring her protests, and maneuvered her onto my back. I'd probably get so much sand down my shirt for this…

"I like it up here," she stated once she was done squirming and decided that she did, in fact, enjoy being carried.

"I'm glad," I said, a small grin on my face. "Maybe you'll be this tall one day."

She gasped. "No! Mama says you're taller than both of us together!"

I laughed again, feeling more light-hearted than I had in a long time. _This_ was why I trained to fight.

To protect my family. My loved ones.

Everyone else? Tough luck.

* * *

_Three months later – age 15_

I watched, bemused, as Ruby tried to unjam her scythe-gun-thing. The girl, sporting her usual outfit that consisted of a dark dress with a flared skirt and red highlights, was ecstatic when she invited me out to Signal's training fields, going on and on about how she finally got her rifle working.

A glance over at her 'target' told me that it did indeed 'work'. The tree had a deep bullet wound in its side… Between the tree and the weapon, though, the tree definitely walked away the proverbial victor.

"Ughhh," she grunted in frustration, flopping onto her back and allowing Crescent Rose's not-so-insignificant weight to fall on her midsection.

"It _did_ shoot the tree," I pointed out amidst the _woosh_ of air as it was abruptly forced from her lungs.

"Yeah," she coughed, lifting up her weapon. "But it got _jammed_! What am I supposed to do if it gets jammed in battle? Who am I going to save like that?" She paused a half second. "No one! That's who!"

A sigh escaped my throat. "Come on Ruby, you're the best weaponsmith at Signal. You'll have it unjammed in no time."

"Nooo," she whined. "It's too deep!"

'_Oh if Yang were here now…'_

"Show me," I said instead.

She huffed, looking much like the child she was with the pout on her face. It was hard to remember she was two years younger than me, all in all Ruby was incredibly mature for her age.

_Sometimes._

"Here," she pointed. "The casing is stuck and I can't get it out because the metal sheered it _right through!_"

Sure enough, there was a spent casing wedged inside Crescent Rose's barrel. It was impaled on the metal of the gun itself.

'_The recoil on this thing must be something…'_

"That's no problem, just use your Aura."

Her brow furrowed and she hugged Crescent Rose to her chest. "No, I don't want to break her!"

Was her control really that bad?

"Let me see it," I said, resolute.

She recoiled though. "No! You're just going to break her!"

"It's not like I'm going to punch her-it – _'Damnit Ruby!' –_, I'm just going to remove the casing."

She still looked wary, hugging the giant scythe like it was some kind of deadly teddy bear.

"Gently," I added.

Ruby stared me down for another ten seconds, long enough that the silence was so awkward that I was about to give up and just go home. Eventually, though, she offered me the weapon by setting it down on the ground in between us.

I leaned over her – _it _– well aware that Ruby was watching me like a hawk.

'_Honestly, this girl and her weapons,'_ I thought as I reached out with my Aura and meta-physically grasped the spent shell. With a gentle application of force, it was no longer impaled on the metal of the barrel and instead floating sedately above the weapon.

A gasp directed my attention back to Ruby; she was sitting on her butt with her hands over her mouth. Her eyes were wide.

"How did you do that?!"

I shot her a confused look. "I… used my Aura?"

"That's not Aura," she shook her head emphatically. "You punch stuff with Aura, and block stuff," she said, miming the two activities comically alongside her words.

"You mean," I started slowly, carelessly sending the spent shelling rocketing toward a nearby tree. It stuck in the bark. "You can't do things like that?"

Her mouth had dropped open again. "That is so _cool!_"

"I'll take that as a no," I laughed, her enthusiasm was infectious.

"That must be your Semblance!"

I nodded, it made sense. I had never actually read of any huntresses or hunters _doing_ anything with their Aura. It was just… there. It protected them and strengthened their bodies, but beyond that it was a non-entity. There were a few people that could use it to such a degree that it noticeably flared when they attacked or defended against an attack; I had thought I was just ahead in its manipulation, given my adult mind and too much time on my hands as a child. I guess not.

A thought struck me then. I had no idea what Ruby's Semblance was. Or Yang's, for that matter.

'_Speaking of Yang…'_

"Where's Yang today? And what's your Semblance?"

Ruby frowned, an expression that looked foreign on her face. "Yang's with her _boyfriend_. I tried to get her to come with us, but she was all 'No I want to see him!', ugh."

I couldn't help but smile. The thirteen year old evidently didn't care about boys. Yet.

"And your Semblance," I reminded her gently.

She perked up.

'_The mood swings on this one…'_

"It's _awesome_," she stated as she got to her feet. Without any further prompting, she shut her eyes in concentration. Her fists balled up and she leaned forward on her feet, like she was about to take off sprinting.

After about three seconds I started to wonder if I missed something, but then she _vanished._

My eyes widened. There was only a trail of red rose petals now, which led to…

'_Ah! Not quite vanished… but that was incredibly fast.'_

"Wow," I said, looking between where she used to be and where she was now.

Ruby straightened and exhaled, looking quite proud of herself. "It takes me a while to use it, but I'll get better!"

I nodded and offered her a smile. "I'm sure you will."

She grinned back at me. "Yours is cool too though! You'll do great at Beacon!"

Her grin looked a bit strained toward the end; it took me a moment, but I came to the conclusion that she was feeling left out. And that made sense, outside of myself and Yang, I didn't know of anyone that Ruby hung out with. And she only knew me _through_ Yang.

'_Maybe I can convince her to socialize more and work on her weapon less?'_

At any rate, I had a question to answer…

"You might see more of me than you think, Ruby," I smiled my best reassuring smile. "I'm not attending Beacon."

"_What?!"_

My eyes widened, surprised as I was at her absolutely flabbergasted expression. She had even dropped Crescent Rose.

"I'm not going-"

"I know, I know," she said quickly. "But _why?_ Beacon Academy is where all the huntresses and hunters get trained! How are you going to be one without going there?!"

I was beginning to think it was a bad idea to tell her of my reluctance, but it was a little too late to take back my words now.

"Being a hunter isn't for me, Ruby."

"You…" She looked so lost. "Why don't you want to be a hunter?"

"I don't see any reason in being one," I shrugged. "I want to get strong to protect my loved ones, not everyone else."

Her brow furrowed. "But… that's so selfish…"

I knew her opinion of me was plummeting. It made me feel pretty bad about myself, but it didn't change my priorities.

"Yeah," I said simply. How could I explain what losing three parents felt like? What feeling so _powerless_ and _watching him die _felt like? Seeing my mother, and even my _five-year-old _sister, deal with so much prejudice; what that felt like?

I couldn't. I couldn't put into words the way that made me feel.

"You… You don't mean that," she said softly. "You can't… What if you aren't there? You can't always be there to protect them!"

My jaw tightened ever so slightly. I didn't want to think about that.

_I would_.

"I will."

"You can't," she said, more angry than sad now. "You _can't_ always be there to protect them!"

My fists clenched and I contemplated walking away, but that didn't sit well with me. Running away never did.

"I'll find a way," I said tightly.

She shook her head and stomped up to me. _"When_ you aren't there, what will happen? What if a hunter is near, wouldn't you want him to protect your loved ones because _you weren't_-"

"Enough, Ruby," I spat.

Her words unsettled me. My reluctance to become a hunter had never been questioned before. I didn't enjoy having my flaws pointed out.

'_But she's right.'_

Sure, she's right. But only if mom and Phoebe go for a walk in the Forever-Fall-fucking-Forest. There weren't any Grimm near- There _usually _weren't any Grimm near-

'_Damnit all!'_

I shook off the thought and forced myself to calm down. Slowly, my breathing grew quieter and my posture, less rigid.

"This is my family," I said once I was sufficiently calm enough to speak without snapping at her. She looked sullenly at the picture I kept on me at all times – one of Phoebe at her last birthday. Mom was standing behind her, reminding her to blow out the candles on the cake.

I saw the edge of the girl's lips quirk. "She's cute," she muttered softly.

"This _was_ my family, before the Grimm got to us."

This picture was one I rarely looked at anymore. It was taken just a few short weeks before the lunar eclipse, a typical family photo set in front of a fireplace.

Ruby's shoulders drooped, evidently catching on to what I was saying.

Good. I didn't feel like verbalizing it any more than I already had. And yet… there was more to tell.

I jabbed my finger at the photo. "This is my second family. My parents, my birth-parents, were killed by Grimm as well."

_Blood flying as it spun. Some in my eye? Sweat? Dive! Divedivedive__**diveDIVE!**_

The thoughts were blinked away before they could haunt me any further. I felt a grimace form on my face all the same.

"I will _not_ lose them," I said, looking her in the eye. "I _wi-_"

My breathing hitched, completely taking me by surprise. I swallowed, finding it harder than normal. A blink of my eyes; a surprised expression flew onto my face.

'_Am I?'_

No. Hell no. I was over this. I was better than this!

I breathed deeper, trying to even it out.

Ruby stepped forward and looped her arms around my back. I swallowed again. My breathing wasn't evening out. I didn't need to be hugged! This wasn't helping!

_Why wouldn't it even out!?_

"Shhhh," the girl hummed as a long, shuddering breath escaped me. I felt my muscles start to slacken.

_Blood. So much blood. No arm-ribs-__**why!?**_

I clenched my teeth even as my knees gave out.

Ruby caught me, somehow. Her weapon maybe. It was _heavy_ and what was I doing?

"It's okay," she said quietly.

And like water released from a burst dam, it all came rushing out.

I was sobbing.

I lost all sense of coherent thought. The memories of those nights – of _both _nights – flashed through my head several times but I never felt anything about them. No rage, no pain. No shame. _Nothing_. I was an observer. A watcher with no attachment.

It was cathartic.

_There was blood. So much blood. Why was there always blood? Why was I so weak?_

I had blamed myself. Carried this burden for _so long_. I knew about it, the entire time I knew about it. I knew what I was doing! But I _couldn't let it go_. It was my burden to bear. It was _always _mine… Or was it? Was it my burden to bear?

Could I be blamed? No one blamed me. Should I blame myself?

I hadn't brought my family to Forever Fall Forest those days. Both of them.

_I could have done __**something!**_

And I _had!_ I had fought. So _hard_. I had saved so many people the second time… so many…

I gasped and swallowed, suddenly aware that I was on the ground now, awkwardly being cradled by a girl that was perhaps half my size. She was trembling, and for a second I thought she was crying too, but then I realized she was only trying to keep from being crushed by my weight.

Given the awkward, bent-over-backward position she was in, it looked pretty difficult. Something her exertion-strained, red face attested to.

She tried to give me a smile and suddenly, I was laughing.

As in, deeply. Harder than I'd laughed in a _long, long _time.

Ruby looked confused for an instant but, soon enough, she was laughing right along with me.

_It was cathartic._

* * *

_Two years later – 17 years old_

I glanced down at my Scroll once more, just to make sure I had read the message right.

'_Yeah, same as the last three times.'_

Beacon Academy was interested in me, _oddly_ interested. I had a sneaking suspicion Ruby – and Yang, to a lesser extent – was behind this.

Ever since The Great Cry – we'd had a good laugh over Yang's confused expression – she had been all about me going to Beacon. I was still resistant, not only because I felt the people I would be required to protect weren't worth it, but because I was _needed_ at home as well.

My job at the grocer was important to my family. That income supported us, meagre though it was, and I couldn't just abandon them to go be a hunter.

'_No matter how much the idea appeals to me more day-by-day.'_

And that was true. Ruby and Yang were relentless in their attempts to sway me into going. Admittedly, there were _some _people that I felt deserved protection… but that was a far cry from Ruby's mentality of _everyone _being worth it.

No… I knew better.

In the end it came down to Beacon and the strength it could provide me. I would be stronger if I attended the school – that much was certain. It was a breeding ground for the best fighters Vale produced, filled with experienced teachers and challenging peers. That kind of competition would doubtlessly get me farther than I would ever progress by myself. Perhaps it was worth going, if only for a year, to see what it was like.

But the money situation with my family always ended the mental debate at that point – regardless of my desires, I needed to work. To support mom and Phoebe. Potential for strength it may offer, but Beacon could not provide for the Melkwegs.

Or so I had thought.

Now, as I read through the message again, I realized I was out of reasons… Which was… good? Right? I wanted to go? I wanted to see if it was worth it?

I got off my bed, suddenly restless, and went downstairs to get some water. The stairs were descended quietly, with an ease born from years of experience using them, only to find my mother sitting at the kitchen table, a magazine spread out in front of her and a glass of water in her hand.

She greeted me mutely, with a smile, and I joined her at the table after procuring some water for myself. A few gulps later and I swallowed deeply, fiddling with my Scroll.

"So," I started slowly. "Beacon."

Mom froze, then looked up at me and smiled suddenly. She put down her magazine and sat back in her chair.

"I was wondering when you would come to me with this," she said. "It's all you've spoken of for the past two years."

My eyebrows arched in surprise and she laughed quietly, doubtlessly aware that Phoebe – notoriously light sleeper that she was – would wake at the slightest provocation.

It had made her a _horrible _baby.

"It was such a relief," she recalled. "I was worried you wouldn't enjoy yourself after Mars passed."

"I did," I said slowly.

She shook her head. "You were so concerned with getting stronger. Nothing else mattered to you… I… I wasn't sure what to do.

"I'm glad you've stopped blaming yourself," she finished.

I grunted, still surprised. I hadn't been aware of a change in my behavior. I knew now that I once carried the blame for dad's death on my shoulders. That, at least, faded after my talk with Ruby. My desire to grow stronger…though. That was still there. That was still very much there because I _would not lose anyone else!_

"I'm still not sure if I want to go," I said eventually – mostly out of a lack of anything better to say.

"Honey," she said, amused. "You're plenty strong for Phoebe and I. We all know that."

I supposed that was true. I was reasonably confident that I could take down most Grimm now, or at the very least keep them away from Mom and Phoebe. It was the people on the streets I was worried about; the ones who sneered and hurled insults at the faunus. Their strength was unknown. It was hidden. It wasn't judged by the thickness of their armor or the size of their body, like it was with the Grimm. A human's strength was only revealed after they decided to use it. I needed to be stronger than that… then them. Because who knew when someone would take the insults too far? Who knew when someone would cross the line?

I'd seen it happen before, there were stories in the news about it all the time, even. A peaceful rally that ended in death. A group of humans that murdered a faunus on the street because they thought themselves justified. It didn't happen often, but it happened.

Mom sipped at her water and continued, drawing me from my thoughts. "Why keep up with your classes, if not to keep up with your _friends_."

I frowned, glancing again at my Scroll.

'_Five times now.'_

She had a point. My friends kept me going. They were my competition; my measuring stick and I knew it was partially thanks to Ruby and Yang that I was as strong as I was now. By myself I would have no reason to push myself – I wouldn't even have the means to _know _if I was pushing myself. When Yang bested me in a spar, I forced myself to be better. When Ruby stayed up all night working on Crescent Rose, I found improvements that I could make to Aegis so I could match her work ethic.

So… mom was right. Partially, at least.

She thought I was over my need to get stronger for her and Phoebe but she also thought me a teenage boy. She probably didn't realize that I knew just how dangerous the world was for the faunus.

So was Beacon worth it? That was the million dollar question: was the strength it offered me worth the danger I'd be putting myself in for people who clearly didn't deserve to be saved?

In light of the realization that I wanted to grow stronger in part because of my friends, I was beginning to think that it was. Maybe, just maybe, I could stand the responsibilities were Yang and Ruby there with me.

I nodded resolutely and slid my Scroll across the table to her.

She picked it up, brow furrowed in confusion. As she read, though, a smile grew on her face and I felt one appear on my own in response.

"Sweetheart," she breathed. "This is- How?"

"I have a feeling Ruby's fingers are all over this," I said, my smile morphing into something of a smirk now. "Her dad and her uncle teach at Signal, they both know Beacon's headmaster."

"Why haven't I met this girl," Mom said, smiling softly as she looked back at the Scroll. Then, suddenly, her eyes darted up to the calendar.

"Honey," she said quickly. "The first day of class starts tomorrow."

My eyes widened. "What?"

"Tomorrow," she repeated, offering up the Scroll so I could verify it.

I read through the message once more. Offer of scholarship… Reimbursement for programmatic… Sufficient for a family of, say, three… Full four years… Class starts _tomorrow. Don't be late._

Oh, hell.

"Uhh," I said slowly. "I guess I should go pack?"

* * *

**A/N: **(01/12/2016) Reviewed. Renewed. Revised and any other like word you can think of.

Happy reading!

-Phailen


	4. Chapter 4

_The next day – Beacon Academy Initiation_

The morning sun found me trailing after a severe looking blonde. We were on our way to Beacon Cliffs, the place where I and the other first year students were going to be put through an initiation of sorts.

I had no idea what it all entailed. Goodwitch – the woman I was following – had been very clear that she was _not_ happy with me and that I _should_ be wearing a uniform and that I'd already broken half a dozen other rules and _no_, she would not let me _cheat_ by telling me about the initiation. On top of the blonde's attitude, I dealt with judgmental glances and scoffed insults on my way through Beacon's halls. All because of what I was wearing.

_What. I. Was. Wearing._

Jeans and a plain under shirt – I did not have any time to put on anything more elaborate this morning, given I just found out that I could attend Beacon less than twenty-four hours ago. _A lot_ less than twenty-four hours, actually.

I was in a sour mood.

Just I started to mutely reconsider attending - because apparently _clothes _mattered to a lot of the huntresses and hunters-to-be here - I heard Goodwitch make an approving noise quickly followed by several voices speaking.

"We are here," she stated. "The initiation is set to begin in two minutes. Hurry, if you will."

She sped up and I started walking faster too.

I checked my right arm, just to make sure that the weight I felt was, in fact, Aegis. Did I bring everything else I needed? What if we were expected to camp out overnight? I glanced down at Aegis again. The shield was more of a thick bracer in its collapsed form now, given all the enhancements I made over the past two years.

Nervously, I ran a hand through my short, brown hair. Hopefully I wouldn't need anything else…

"_Enten!"_

Ruby's voice, I recognized it easily. I had just enough time to turn toward it before a blackish-reddish blob smashed into my side.

"You're here," she cheered, inches from my ear. "That's _so_ great! Now I know _two_-"

She cut herself off quickly and I smiled sympathetically at her. Even now, she had trouble making friends. I knew she was hoping Beacon would be a fresh start for her but it looked like the girl hadn't had any luck at socializing.

I squeezed her shoulders with one of my arms. "Couldn't just let you and Yang get ahead me, you know?"

Ruby grinned up at me even as her sister punched my opposite shoulder.

"What's up, Yang," I said. "Miss me?"

She grinned up at me too, looking frighteningly similar to her half-sister, and it struck me how much three years had changed us. We used to be the same height, Yang and I, now I stood several inches taller than her and quite a bit broader too.

"You know it tough guy!" She shadow boxed in front of me, the brown coat about her shoulders bouncing with the movement. "Dunno what I'd do without my number one sparring partner!"

"Can't have you losing your edge," I agreed. The banter was relaxing and served to cool my frustration at how the morning went. The three of us talked for another few seconds and I noticed a boy lingering nearby. By his facial expression and the way his eyes darted around the clearing, I could tell he wanted to join our conversation but apparently didn't know how.

'_Huntresses and hunters in training they may be - the lot of them are still awkward teenagers.'_

"Enten," I said, stepping away from Yang and Ruby and offering the blond my hand.

He jumped but hurried to accept the gesture. "Ah, Jaune. Jaune Arc!"

"Nice to meet you Jaune," I nodded. "I hope these two haven't driven you spare yet?"

The girls squawked, indignant, behind me while the boy in front of me laughed.

"No, no," he said quickly even as his shoulders relaxed. "They've been great! I haven't had- well, they're great!"

I smiled. Yes, Ruby wasn't so odd in her social awkwardness. Might be that I just forgot what it was like to be a teenager.

"He didn't know Pyrrha Nikos," the shorter girl in question chimed in from my side. She was in her usual black and red dress, complete with dark tights and heavy looking boots. The dark clothing, as usual, remained a startling contrast to her cheerful demeanor.

Jaune shrugged, clearly embarrassed even as I said: "Who?"

The name sounded vaguely familiar. I couldn't place it though - it never came up in any of my readings.

Ruby shrugged and I laughed. Apparently she didn't know much either. I heard someone nearby – a girl – huff and storm away from us at that point. She was short, wore a snowflake-covered white dress and had pure white hair.

"Wonder what her problem is," I muttered even as the headmaster – Ozpin – called for our attention.

Next to me, Ruby scoffed as our group of four headed toward the cliff's edge. "She's just a bossy know-it-all."

"Ruby blew her up," Yang stage-whispered across her sister's face.

"I did not blow her up," the fifteen year old said, adamant and a little louder than she should have. We reached the rest of the students then and most, if not all of them, were staring at Ruby. The younger girl blushed even as the white haired girl scoffed and looked away.

'_Ray of sunshine, that one.'_

Ozpin cleared his throat, easily garnering our attention. Beside him, Goodwitch stood with a Scroll held in her crossed arms. Without any further ceremony, the gray haired man started off on a speech about the forest below the cliff and what we were here for.

The short of it? We were going to be launched off this cliff and into the forest. After landing, we needed to head to an abandoned temple 'at the end of the path'. _The path_.

'_Unless that path zig zags across the entire forest, that doesn't help __**at all**_.'

Finally, once at the temple, we needed to grab a relic and make it back to Beacon.

At least that part was straight forward.

Oh, and the first person you made eye contact with down there was going to be your partner for the next _four years_.

'_What genius thought __**that**__ was a good idea?'_

"Now," Ozpin continued, sipping from the mug in his hand. "An administrative incident-" Goodwitch scoffed. "-left us with an odd number of students this year. As such, there will be one group of three partners. You will know if you are part of that group of three."

Now my fellow students were whispering to one another; we were all stuck on these platforms so no one could really move, but I heard them trying to figure out who had joined them since this morning. I didn't bother trying to draw attention to myself and given I was standing between Yang and a big guy in armor, it wasn't hard. Upon hearing Ozpin finish his speech, I crouched – better to absorb the force from being launched – and expanded Aegis.

It was a work of art, though I may have been a little biased. It was still a kite shield, now reaching nearly three-quarters of my height and stretching just a little wider than my shoulders. The edges on the side of the shield were bladed, tapering down into a wicked looking spear point. It was thicker now too, Aegis. I needed to make it bulkier so that I could direct my Semblance through it from the inside. To that end, I had placed multiple vent-like ports on its edges. It gave Aegis the odd appearance of having two layers of metal.

The shield was heavy, too. Heavy enough that I needed an elbow length gauntlet to support it completely. My hand was positioned near one of the top corners of the shield while my elbow was locked into place right in the middle of it. It looked weird when I held Aegis at my side because of that, but I found it more natural to hold it in front of me that way rather than using a completely horizontal alignment.

"You the newbie," the big guy on my left said. He'd been throwing glances my way for the past fifteen seconds.

I looked at him and nodded. "It was a last second thing. Enten, you?"

"Cardin," the boy said. "You must be good, if the headmaster waited for you."

"I'm alright," I shrugged. I was probably a little better than just alright, if Yang's boasting about being one of the best at Signal had any merit, but bragging was never a strong point for me. Better to draw less attention to myself anyway, given I was unique in that I only just arrived at Beacon.

The boy scoffed even as students started to get launched into the forest.

"The headmaster wouldn't have made us wait for just anyone. You're good."

Well, at least he was sure of himself.

I shrugged again while we waited – it was taking forever for all of us to be thrown off the cliff. "I prefer to let Aegis do the talking," a shifting of my stance allowed me to show him my 'weapon'. Given I used it on my dominant arm – my right – and he was on my left, I had to do some rotating.

"Damn," he muttered, eyebrows arched. "Big shield. I approve.

"This is Ofring," he said as he grabbed the large mace on his back. "I can put any Grimm down with this-"

Our conversation was promptly ended when he was launched into the forest and, a few seconds later, I was thrown from the cliff too.

* * *

_The Emerald Forest_

It was a simple thing to use Aegis to break my fall and I ended up alone in the forest with nary a bruise to show for it.

It was a quiet, tranquil atmosphere that surrounded me. Either the other students hadn't found any Grimm yet or they were too far for me to hear. I shut my eyes for a few seconds and just… breathed. It was relaxing and a much needed relief from the craziness this morning offered me. My life was being dramatically changed – for the better, I hoped – and a moment to gather my bearings was met with extreme gratitude.

A sudden silence fell over the nearby wild-life and I heard the rustling of bushes not too long after.

'_Grimm or student,'_ I thought as I hefted Aegis up in front of me. _'Either way, I have a target now.'_

That thought in mind, I started heading toward the rustling. It didn't sound like a Grimm; there were no animalistic sounds or heavy foot falls, just a rustling of bushes.

'_30 feet out.'_

But damn if this wasn't the densest forest I'd ever been in… Forever Fall had _nothing_ on this. The brush was tall enough to reach my waist in some spots and the trees were _maybe_ fifteen feet apart at the most. I couldn't see the sky anymore-

'_Movement!'_

I couched fully behind Aegis, wary and ready.

"Student or Grimm," I called. The immediate lack of movement relieved me; if this thing _was _a Grimm then I had no doubt it would already be attacking.

"Student," I heard a girl call back after a second or two of strained, awkward silence. She stepped out of the bushes just as I straightened, clad mostly in blacks and whites. Two of her more unique characteristics stuck out to me most of all though – the large bow she kept in her hair and her yellow eyes.

"Enten," I said, extending my hand once I disengaged it from the gauntlet I used to control some of Aegis' more fine-tuned abilities. I thought it was pretty fun to watch – Ruby agreed – because the gauntlet would peel back over my hand and the entire shield shift back up the gauntlet with an intimidating growl of machinery.

She accepted the gesture with a quiet, "Blake." Then silence descended over us again.

She was watching me silently, but once I caught her eyes she averted her gaze and started glancing around the forest.

'_Awkward silence.'_

It was something I was used to, something I thought all teenagers were used to. This girl appeared to be no different but was still reluctant to speak.

"Alright," I said. "This abandoned tem-"

A scream cut me off. Not one of fear, but one that spoke of rage.

'_That was Yang!'_

"Come on," I said quickly before I darted off toward the commotion, Aegis up in front of me. Blake was following after me, judging by the sound of rustling bushes. The trees were so thick that I could scarcely see even thirty feet in front of me; the only guiding influence I really had was the racket Yang was making.

'_She must be __**pissed**__.'_

I rounded a tree trunk and abruptly found myself in a clearing. So startling was the transition between thick forest brush and open skies that I stopped behind Aegis reflexively, eyes scanning the clearing for any threats. Behind me, Blake managed to stop on a dime _and _keep her balance; I felt more than heard her crouch behind me. It was all for not, though. The only thing in the clearing was Yang and two downed Grimm. She was breathing heavily and currently looking away from us.

I snorted. "What did these poor, innocent creatures do to deserve this?"

Yang spun, her fists up in a boxing stance, but quickly relaxed when she saw me.

"Enten," she crowed.

I grinned and half-turned, encouraging Blake to step forward. She did. Yang's eyes widened, apparently she hadn't seen the girl.

"This is Blake," I said to the blonde. Then, to my partner: "Blake, this is Yang. She and I go back."

"Waaaay back," the girl confirmed with a happy nod in greeting. "We met last… last… _What_ is _that?_"

I looked up, in the direction Yang was staring, to find whatever had caused her to pause. It was not hard… The thing stuck out like a sore thumb and looked like a giant pinkish-purplish bolt of plasma and…

"Shit," I spat, herding Blake behind me and bringing Aegis to bear. "Yang!"

"It's not," she started to say just as the energy curved downward, heading _straight for us_. It was even larger than I thought, at least ten feet wide.

"Uh oh," Yang muttered as she finally got moving.

The second the blonde made it behind me, I planted my left hand on the inside of Aegis and channeled my Semblance through the metal. The shield absorbed it readily and started spitting it out via the vents on its front. In short order, I had a translucent shield made entirely of my Aura placed between the three of us and the impact site _which was about to __**become**__ the impact site-_

The plasma hit the ground and I tensed my muscles in preparation. Yang and Blake were silent behind me… in fact, the entire clearing was silent.

There was no explosion, no shockwave, no… _anything_.

Hesitantly, I lowered Aegis.

"You've got to be kidding me," I muttered, straightening out of my crouch. The translucent blue shield faded away and, annoyed, I noted that my Aura was sitting at about four fifths of its maximum.

My Semblance was incredibly powerful in that it gave me nearly unlimited control over my Aura and the ability to influence nearly anything I touched in any way. The downside was that it pulled directly from my reserves; the stronger my Semblance's attacks, the weaker my Aura's defense. Because of that, I often played a delicate balancing act in combat. I needed to make my attacks strong enough to bring down my opponents but I needed to save enough of my Aura to weather any attacks in return.

Yang scoffed as she and Blake stepped out from behind me. They too were exasperated.

The plasma hadn't been an attack. It hadn't even done anything but leave behind a small, wooden sign in the clearing.

'_Surprise! You three are partners now!'_

"So," I said about ten seconds later, when we'd all been given a chance to come to terms that the 'attack' was really just their convoluted way of telling us we were stuck together. "This abandoned temple?"

* * *

All in all, I think I got lucky as far as partners were concerned. Blake and I worked especially well together; she was all about offense where I was all about defense. Alone, she often over-extended herself in a reckless drive to do as much damage as possible whereas I ended up weathering blows behind Aegis without dishing out much in the way of a counter attack.

Together, I was able to cover for her when she slipped up and she was able take down the enemies that I could not.

And then there was Yang.

Yang was a _force of nature_.

She took hit after hit after hit from her enemies and only ended up _stronger_ because of it. The more damage done to her Aura, the harder she hit. That was her Semblance. There were very few ways to beat the girl in a fight and the pack of Beowolves we'd just fought were unable to utilize any of them.

I shifted my shoulders, collapsing Aegis to give the tired muscles a break. Beside me, Blake sheathed her katana-esque weapon and placed it on her back. It was an interesting piece of work, given that both the blade and the sheath could be used in combat. I was impressed with it and with her skill in handling it - hopefully the rest of the students at Beacon were equally as competent. If all of us were this strong already then that would definitely count as a positive aspect of attending Beacon.

"Woo," Yang cheered, stretching her arms above her head. "This is fun! And I think I see that temple too!"

"Fun, she says. Temple, she says. _This_, she says," the nonsensical words spilled out of my mouth as I watched the blonde dart out of the clearing, pulling up the sole orange knee sock she wore under her combat boots. Maybe I was bitter, but her Semblance was _so_ much better than mine. Seeing it in action again just drove that point home.

I heard Blake snort as she brushed passed me and my lips twitched upward as I moved to follow her.

Still, I had a lot going for me as well. My Semblance was definitely more dynamic than Yang's and it wasn't dependent on getting hit – thankfully.

Blake and I cleared the tree line just in time to see our last partner reach the ruins of what looked to be a stone temple. As we drew closer, I noticed that there were pillars placed around the inside ring of the temple's walls. Each pillar had something on it… A chess piece?

Yeah, chess pieces. Black and gold. Ironic, given my companions' color schemes.

"These must be the relics," Yang said, excited. She was currently inspecting each piece, slowly making her way around the circle of pillars. I noticed that two of the pieces were already gone, but the other eighteen were still present.

I heard Yang coo behind me and turned to find her holding a golden knight.

"How about a cute little pony!?"

Blake shrugged and I didn't care much either; I _did_, however, see an opportunity to wind the energetic girl up…

"Wait," I said, attracting their attention as I walked over to the other golden knight. I held it up for Yang to see. "This one is better."

Her eyebrows rose and she slowly shook her head, unimpressed as she glanced between her piece and mine. It was clear to me that she was at a loss for words.

Given there was no visible difference between the two pieces, that was to be expected.

"It's obviously superior," I expanded, fighting to keep my face blank. "I don't know how you missed it…"

"What," Yang said slowly. "They're the _same_, dolt."

I arched an eyebrow and glanced toward Blake. "She can be a little slow, sometimes. You'll have to forgive her," I commiserated.

"What?!"

"The dirt smudge on yours. And the crack down the middle, _duh_." It had neither a crack nor a smudge, but it distracted her long enough for me to bring Blake into the conversation.

"Blake," I called. "Which one is better?"

"Yeah," Yang said, looking rather confused now. "Tell him mine's better! There's no smudge on here… or a crack!"

The girl in question looked incredibly uncomfortable and I almost felt bad for putting her in this position. She would probably enjoy it just as much as I would, though, when Yang caught on.

"Uhh," she muttered, looking between the two of us. Hesitantly, she pointed toward the blonde.

"Yeah," Yang cheered, turning toward me. "See! You're just- Why are you _smiling_? You were- Oh, you're _dead_. Dead!"

I barked a short, sharp laugh and placed my knight back on the pillar just as she reached me. A quick step to the side left me in the perfect position to put her into a headlock, which I did.

"Hey," Yang squawked indignantly when I started to rub my fist into her hair. "You have _no idea_ how long it takes-"

She managed to punch me in the gut and I doubled over, leaving her to stand over me with her chess piece held high.

"All hail the great Yang!"

"Your hair resembles a bird's nest," Blake observed, smiling softly as she drew near. I think it was the first time I saw her with something other than a neutral look on her features.

"You should smile more often," I said. "You have a pretty smile."

She flushed and Yang cooed.

"Awww, how cute!"

I glanced at her as I got to my feet. "You've got a nasty case of bedhead. You should put more time into your appearance."

The girl chuckled darkly. "What do you want on your grave-"

She was abruptly cut off by a scream from somewhere… above?

Yes… yes, above. There was figure in the sky and it was getting closer. It was- It was a _someone!_

"Is that Ruby," I muttered, wide eyed. The girl had perfect timing – with any luck her sister would forget about the insult.

Yang, sufficiently distracted at seeing her baby sister falling out of the sky, yelped. "Ruby!"

I moved to catch her – I couldn't just _let _her hit the ground – but movement in the corner of my eye distracted me. Jaune Arc was flying through the air as well… and he was right on track to hit Ruby.

_In mid-air._

'_What are the chances,'_ I thought, sardonic, even as my left arm came up to track the boy's flight through the air. _'Sorry Jaune.'_

A blast of force issued from my arm, impacting the blond boy and sending him spinning into an arc that would take him above Ruby. The girl herself reached the ground just as I opened my arms to catch her. The impact was jarring – for both of us, to be certain – but I managed to keep her from having her fall broken by the unforgiving ground.

"Thanks," Ruby chirped once she was on her feet.

"Ruby," Yang said, sprinting up to us and leaning in close to the younger girl's face. "What were you _thinking_? Jumping from- from…"

The girl glanced upward so I did as well, oddly enough the only thing in the sky was a massive Nevermore…

'_No…'_

"Ruby," Yang said softly, a sweet smile on her face as she looked away from the massive bird-like Grimm. "Why is there a Nevermore in the sky?"

"Uhh, because they fly?"

"Because they fly," the blonde girl nodded. "Of course Nevermores fly, they have wings and that's the easiest – _Why were you on a __**Nevermore's**__ back?!"_

"I wasn't on a Nevermore's back," Ruby protested, stamping her feet.

There was a moment of silence, then:

"I was… on its claws?"

Yang inhaled sharply and started breathing deeply, trying to calm herself. While I wasn't too pleased with her either, Ruby wasn't my sibling; it wasn't my place to scold her for doing something so dangerous. Besides, at that moment I saw another person _falling out of the sky_. Because apparently one wasn't enough. This time, it was the huffy girl from the cliffs. The one that wore white… _everything_.

I glanced at my companions. Yang was saying something to Ruby whilst the girl in question scuffed her boot on the ground. Blake was watching the two of them and Jaune was nowhere to be seen.

'_Well, it's not like I'll just let her hit the ground.'_

I shuffled over a few steps, until I was under her, and managed to catch her as I had Ruby.

"Uh," she scoffed as soon as she realized what had happened. "Let me- Put me down!"

I did, second guessing my decision to help this girl out… she was quite abrasive.

Once on her feet, the girl immediately honed in on Ruby and she started to stomp toward her. Halfway there, she hesitated and threw a quick, "Thank you for catching me," at me over her shoulder.

"I don't know what to think," I muttered as I drew up beside Blake. "Two people fell from the sky. Another was tossed half way across the forest after nearly hitting Ruby in _mid-air_…"

Her yellow eyes swiveled to me all of the sudden, taking me by surprise. I had thought she was riveted on the verbal beating Yang was giving Ruby.

"The boy's trajectory changed. He should have hit Ruby."

"Oh," I said, relieved. "You mean my Semblance. I… I'll explain more later. We have company!"

I said the last bit loud enough for everyone to hear, not that it was necessary, the giant Deathstalker chasing a red haired girl was loud enough on its own.

"Pyrrha," Jaune yelped as he ran out of the forest behind us. I must have launched him farther than I thought, for him to take so long to get to us. And as if the entire situation wasn't hectic enough, two more students chose that moment to ride into the clearing on the back of a large, bear-like Grimm.

An _Ursai_.

"_Now_, I don't know what to think," I said, laughing even as I expanded Aegis.

The Ursai was dead, at least, so that left us with a giant scorpion-esque Deathstalker on the ground and a giant Nevermore in the air. The red haired girl clad in pink didn't seem to care about either of them, though; she dashed away from the Ursai corpse and over to the temple immediately while her companion caught his breath. Pyrrha was currently flying across the clearing, courtesy of the scorpion-thing's claws while Jaune started screaming incoherently, panicked.

Yang and the white haired girl were standing in front of the ruins, Blake was with me… So where was-

"Ruby," I exclaimed, startled and scared out of my mind when I saw the girl charging the Deathstalker. Alone.

"Shit," my Semblance made itself known in a burst of energy emitted from my feet, launching me forward. I hit the ground sprinting for all I was worth. Ruby clashed violently with the giant Grimm and, immediately, realized she could do little on her own against the thing. She folded Crescent Rose up on her back and began running away from the beast. It was gaining on her.

Why wasn't she using her weapon to move faster?

I heard Yang behind me just as the Nevermore – forgotten until now – unleashed a barrage of wicked looking feathers, their tips as sharp as spear points. They rained down on all three of us and one caught Ruby's cloak, pinning the girl to the ground.

Enhanced intelligence indeed. The larger the Grimm grew, the smarter they would become. Given their size, these Grimm were _dangerous_.

I cursed again and raised Aegis over my head, continuing forward. Yang fell back behind me, without a shield to cover her she couldn't risk running into a deadly rain of spear-feathers. While the projectiles did not stop me, they _did_ slow me down.

The Deathstalker was so _close_ now.

'_I'm not going to make it.'_

The realization hit me with a deep feeling of dread and I abruptly stopped running. I planted both my feet and threw my right arm forward. Aegis' pointed tip swung up at the urging of my fingertips and aligned with my arm.

Then, I fired.

It was a desperate, last resort action. I was too far away and the Deathstalker was already on top of Ruby.

'_Come on, come on,'_ I urged, watching as Aegis flew forward, a thick chain attaching it to the bracer portion still on my arm. Time slowed when I saw it clip a feather and get knocked off course. It hit another feather, and another before finally spinning out of control and dropping, useless, a mere ten feet from Ruby.

"No," I cried. So close. _So close!_

The scorpion reared back and hurled its stinger down and then… Then, there was ice… And the girl, the white haired girl, she was standing over Ruby. In front of the Deathstalker. The beast's appendage was frozen solid, caught in the girl's ice.

_'Fast,'_ I thought as my eyes narrowed and I exhaled in relief. Aegis was quickly reeled back in with a little manipulation of the gauntlet covering my right hand – I had built tiny buttons into it along the side of my pointer finger, easily useable with my thumb.

"Girls," I shouted when I noticed they were just sitting there, _talking_, while the Deathstalker tried to free its stinger. "Move!"

That got them going, though the white haired girl threw me a dirty look. She'd just have to deal with it – ten feet from a giant Grimm was no place to have a conversation. Fast she may be, situational awareness clearly wasn't her strong point.

In short order, Blake, Yang, Ruby, the girl and I were all back in front of the ruins. The other four – Jaune, Pyrrha and the two Ursai riders were there as well.

Yang had Ruby in a death grip of a hug; she was scared and I didn't blame her. If not for- for…

"What's your name," I said to the girl in white. I couldn't just keep referring to her as 'the white haired girl' in my head.

"Weiss," she said shortly. "Weiss Schnee."

I recognized the name. The Schnee family owned one of the largest Dust companies in the world. They were not friends of the faunus but then the faunus were not friends of them either. Still, I would keep an open mind... this girl did not deserve to be judged based upon her family's work. Given her background, though, she was _exactly _the kind of person I was worried my mom and Phoebe would encounter; dangerously skilled and carrying a potential grudge against the faunus.

"Enten," I said, trying and ultimately failing to hide my wariness. The girl frowned but nodded in response all the same, social niceties required of her as part of the Schnee family, most like.

While we were introducing ourselves, Ruby ran off to the temple and grabbed one of the chess pieces. Jaune, upon seeing that, scrambled off to grab one too. An argument then started up over what the group should do next and that confused me. Why did we need to stick together?

I understood that there was strength to be had in numbers but that redheaded girl proved that the Deathstalker could be outrun. Easier to do that than it was to fight them and the larger the group we had, the more likely we were to be found.

That opinion was unique to me, though. That became readily apparent as I listened to the eight teens volley ideas back and forth. I contemplated just leaving on my own for a short time but ultimately resigned myself to sticking with the group. It would probably be frowned upon if I left my partners behind in the Emerald Forest, given it was implied that were to stick together.

Disgruntled but ultimately unbothered, I instead focused my attention on the argument taking place in front of me.

It was interesting, seeing this group's dynamics at play. I could tell already that Weiss, Ruby and the orange haired girl were used to being heard. They were the most vocal by far. Jaune remained quiet, flinching every time the Deathstalker a short distance away made itself known with a frustrated screeching sound. He was right to be wary. We needed to move… and fast.

And the group knew it too, there was an air of rushed panic amongst them as a whole. The vast majority wanted to run. Now it was just a matter of deciding how to go about it, where to go, whether or not we needed a distraction… that kind of thing.

Blake and, surprisingly enough, Yang stayed silent alongside me throughout the entire exchange. I expected that of black haired girl. What little interaction we shared today was more than enough to show me that she was quiet and reserved and when she spoke she did so…evasively. Almost like she wanted to avoid directly confronting someone at all costs. Maybe she was just shy and didn't want to offend anyone? Sometimes people took time to come out of their shells. I would know eventually.

Yang I knew to be outgoing. She was almost always the center of attention and always had a word - or a pun - to add to a conversation. Thus, her silence surprised me. She was extraordinarily focused on something too. Her eyes locked onto… Ruby?

I glanced back at the blonde just to make sure I was following her gaze correctly. Sure enough, she was watching Ruby. Was she still worried after the near death encounter? Was Ruby behaving strangely? My eyes failed me and I couldn't find anything off about her demeanor or her behavior. She was speaking animatedly to the group at large, bouncing ideas off of people who spoke up.

Maybe I just didn't know her well enough to see it?

"We have no reason to fight them," Weiss reiterated. She was frowning and her brow was furrowed. "Our objective is complete. We have the relics."

Ruby offered the girl a nod. "Weiss is right. Let's head back to Beacon!"

She took off running and the group as a whole hesitated, unsure of whether to follow or not.

I wasn't sure she knew it, but Ruby had just placed herself in a position of power. She threw down the proverbial gauntlet. She made a claim at leading us.

Yang and I locked eyes for a moment. She was pleased about something now. Ruby's actions? How the girl was taking charge?

I'd have to ask later.

At any rate, we both took off running after Ruby, silently accepting the girl's challenge.

'_Alright, Ruby. I'll follow.'_

Blake took off after her partners and, with about half their number gone, the rest of the group fell into line.

* * *

_The gorge_

I was not mobile. Not on the level that Blake, Yang, Ruby and Weiss were. Even now, they easily maneuvered their way through a storm of falling rubble, steadily climbing to a high stone platform above the deep gorge we found ourselves in.

A grimace was on my face as I used my Semblance to clumsily blast myself to some rubble above me. Aegis was collapsed, I didn't need its bulk throwing me off right now…

Another use of my Semblance, more of my Aura slipped away.

'_Not even half left anymore,'_ I lamented even as I used it once more to finally, _finally_ make it up to the walkway where Ruby was standing.

"Not mobile," I muttered when she looked my way. The Nevermore had just hit the side of a tall cliff, courtesy of Yang unloading a salvo of ammo straight into its mouth.

'_Crazy girl.'_

Weiss froze the giant bird's tail feathers to the building it was sitting on before it tried to take flight. It was trapped on the ground now, where we could reach it.

Where _I_ could reach it. This fight showed me I had some serious flaws to take care of, ranged offense and mobility being the two largest. I could use my Semblance to cover for both, but with such a potentially dangerous consequence of its use… I was more than a little wary of doing that.

Blake and Yang just managed to stretch a black ribbon between two pillars when the Nevermore, sensing danger, raised itself up and unleashed a barrage of those deadly feathers at us.

"Enten," Ruby called as she shot herself up to the ribbon, stretching it back to where Weiss was waiting with her glyphs like some kind of giant sling shot.

I expanded Aegis – _'Stupid! Should have done that earlier!' _– and jumped up, directly between the projectiles and the girls. This time, I went all out. Well over a quarter of my Aura was pushed into Aegis and the same translucent blue shield appeared, this time it was large enough to encompass the entire platform we stood upon.

The feathers impacted the blue energy and I heard at least one ecstatic shout behind me when they slowed until they were stuck in it completely, unmoving.

I dropped to the platform and the giant projectiles landed in a line on my sides. My left fist was already cocked back with all the Aura I had left. A wordless roar tore from my lips as I thrust my arm forward, releasing my Semblance.

It thundered down the platform, rocketing toward the giant Grimm even as it reared back for another attack. The beast never got a chance to use its feathers, though. My Aura hit it head on and threw it back into the cliff.

It quickly regained its feet and I turned around to find Ruby and Weiss talking. _Talking!_

"Go!" I had no idea what their plan was, but I couldn't block another barrage of those feathers, not completely.

They jumped, startled, but complied just as the Nevermore released _more feathers._

We were going to have a word about talking in the midst of battle later.

"Shit," I spat as I half-shuffled, half-ran to Weiss. Yang and Blake were hiding behind the pillars they were on but the Schnee heiress was completely vulnerable.

"Weiss," I yelled when I realized I wouldn't make it. The girl was doing something to the cliff behind me but I did not have time to observe it. Instead I turned around and hefted Aegis up, hoping she got the point. I might only have a sliver of Aura left, but I could still block the ones that came directly at me.

I heard the girl's shoes behind me just as the attack reached the four of us. My arm shook but held strong. One-two-three feathers impacted Aegis and bounced off of the unyielding metal before I lowered my arm.

Just in time to see Ruby finish her sprint to the top of the cliff, aided by the Schnee heiress' glyphs and dragging the Nevermore behind her by its neck in Crescent Rose's blade.

"Damn," I breathed. _That_ was impressive. A plan that combined Weiss' glyphs with Ruby's speed and power. Not to mention that fact that she was dragging a creature several times her size and weight behind her up a _vertical_ surface. Crazy.

I laughed hollowly when I saw the beast's head get torn off. Relief tore through me and I finally allowed myself to sink to a knee, breathing heavily.

'_First day at Beacon and I've already got a story for Phoebe.'_

* * *

**A/N**: And so begins the first year at Beacon! Getting the story setup and the OC(s) introduced is thankfully behind me now...

For a reference on how Enten wields Aegis, search up images on 'dark souls kite shield'.

(01/12/2016): Revised.

**Ghost of a Reaper**: Thanks for your feedback - I don't like too many one-liners either. At the same time I dislike super-long paragraphs too; I tried to find a better balance between short and long for this chapter. Hope you enjoy!

Welp, that's all for now. Let me know what you think and thanks for reading!

-Phailen


	5. Chapter 5

_The morning after Initiation_

It was early when I woke. The sky was still dark and a glance at my bedside clock told me it was 5:24. I didn't need to be in class until nine and falling back asleep amid my roommates' steady breathing was a tempting thought. I had things I wanted to do this morning, though, and not enough time to do them. That in mind, I forced myself out of bed and stumbled to the adjoining bathroom for our dorm. It was surprisingly difficult given my path was littered with obstacles. I was certain that this room was not meant for five people, it was actually a little small for four people as well.

'_Then again,'_ I noted as I maneuvered over Blake's shoes and one of Weiss' many suitcases, _'it is a dorm room. Not supposed to be big.'_

I made it to the bathroom without disturbing any of my roommates – girls, all of them. And I was supposed to be a teenaged boy…

'_Who thought __**that**__ was a good idea?'_

I could tell this year would be taxing already. Never mind training to be a hunter or having to go to class again, I was already annoyed with all the _stuff_ in the dorm room. I was used to a minimalistic amount of clutter in my room at home but with four roommates – one of them being Weiss – the random amount of crap on the floor would probably cover it entirely.

I dismissed the thoughts as irrelevant – nothing could be done about clutter with five people living in one room – and brushed my teeth quickly. After that, I indulged in a short shower. I went to bed without one last night, the girls had been bickering over bathroom use and going to bed dirty was better than arguing. It was only later, after the shower – _'How do they shed so much hair and not go bald _?' – and as I was getting dressed, that I realized I did not have a Beacon uniform. A quick glance around the bathroom told me I was fresh out of luck there and I know I didn't _bring_ one.

'_Oh well.'_ Looks like it was jeans and a t-shirt again. Goodwitch wouldn't be pleased.

Blake was awake and brushing her hair when I entered the dorm. She glanced my way and offered me a small smile, a gesture that I returned. Ruby, Yang and Weiss were still sleeping.

Team RWEBY. That was our name, our call-sign. The first letter from each of our first names, piled together into a word that could be read like 'ruby'… Regardless of the naming convention, it felt good to be on a team. Sometimes huntresses and hunters stayed together even after they finished their schooling; team names then became something that was used like a celebrity's. Something the citizens of Vale said in awed and excited whispers.

It made me proud to be part of one.

Team RWEBY. One day, maybe we would be one of those celebrity teams. Maybe one day _our _name would be whispered reverently by the Vale's residents. It was an appealing thought.

I reached my bed and gathered up my things, clearing my mind in the process. My well-used Scroll stayed in my hand and I turned to leave the room. Movement behind me indicated that Blake had stood as well; I held the door open for her and we left the room side-by-side.

"The sun is just rising," she noted quietly, almost the second the door shut behind us. And it was true, sunlight was just starting to stream in through the hallway windows. It painted everything in a soft orange glow that served to remind me of the sunrises I saw back home.

I shrugged, again noting the odd way in which she spoke. "Normally I'm up early to exercise, this morning I plan on exploring Beacon, instead."

"Didn't see you here last night," she commented.

"No, you wouldn't have," I laughed, assuming that she wanted to know the reason _why _I was late rather than just getting confirmation of that fact. "I was still figuring out whether or not I wanted to attend two nights ago."

She looked at me and opened her mouth like she wanted to say something, but ended up falling silent.

"Did I wake you," I asked a minute or so later. The silence was companionable but if she was _that_ light a sleeper, there might be issues with my habit of waking up early. I wanted to clear the air.

She nodded and cut me off before I could apologize. "It's okay. I have sensitive ears. I usually get up around now anyway."

I hummed an acknowledgement. "So you _can _do more than point things out."

She frowned and I laughed quietly. "Don't worry, I don't mind. Just found it odd that you stop before you make any accusations… Almost like you're afraid of putting yourself in a position where you could be wrong."

Blake fell silent for several moments. "I grew up ostracized for reasons outside my control," she explained at length, then hesitated. "I think it might be nice to have someone else up this early. I would have just read."

"A good book is a good companion," I offered, mostly out of a lack of anything better to say in the face of the blatant attempt to change the subject. She showed me the one she brought with her then. I wasn't familiar with it but then most of my reading involved software code.

We stumbled through Beacon's halls for perhaps an hour before I thought I had a good idea of where everything was placed. It helped that Blake knew where some things were from her time at the academy yesterday. We finished up in the dining hall around seven in the morning so we decided to grab a bite to eat while we were there. The fact that there were perhaps a half dozen other people eating with us came as a surprise to me.

"There's gotta be more people than this," I muttered as I sat my tray laden with food on the table. Eggs. Bacon. And, of course, biscuits and gravy. Blake placed herself across from me with – oddly enough – a tuna sandwich on her plate.

I thought it was strange to have tuna for breakfast but my family wasn't big into fish so it might be more common than I thought. Then again it could just be an eating habit, people had some strange ones so anything was possible. Mom and Phoebe actually had a soft spot for bamboo shoots, something I figured was due to their faunus nature. I personally found them tasteless and-

Wait a minute.

'_What did she say before? Sensitive ears?'_

The bow on her head _was_ pretty large – like, _unnecessarily _large – and I hadn't seen her without it-

'_Did it just twitch?'_

My eyes narrowed. _'She grew up ostracized…'_

"Something wrong," Blake asked; she sounded tense.

I tore my eyes away from the bow – twitching minutely still, I probably wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't been looking specifically at it – and focused on her face. She was looking at me from under her fringe and gripping the table so hard her knuckles were turning white.

I blinked and glanced around subtly, or at least I hope it was subtly. At any rate, no one else was within ear shot.

"Are you a faunus," I asked quietly and her face morphed into something resembling desperation. Her muscles tensed and she started to pull back, but I managed to grab her arm before she could get away completely.

"Blake," I said, bringing my wallet up to the table. "It's not a big deal to me."

She dropped back into her seat, her face slack and void of any expression, but her back was ramrod straight and her eyes were riveted on my face. The girl looked lost for a moment, but then she found her voice.

"_Please_ don't tell anyone," she hissed quietly. "I'm a cat faunus."

I frowned and she stiffened in response. "If you tell-"

"It sucks you guys feel this way," I cut her off firmly, but as quietly as I could manage. In my hand was the picture I'd dug out of my wallet. This one was only a few months old; a stereotypical family photo of Mom, Phoebe and I. "But I understand. The way people treat you…"

Her eyes softened slightly as she took the photo and then her eyebrows shot up. The girl glanced at the top of my head – _'Like she missed a pair of panda ears up there when she first met me…' _– and then back at my face.

"No rings around the eyes either, dork," I said, an amused smile on my face.

She flushed and looked back down at the picture in her hands, still silent. The faunus was holding it so delicately, like it would shatter if she gripped it too hard.

"My family," I noted. "Adoptive, but just as good as blood, in my mind. My little sister, Phoebe, and my mom." That said, I went back to eating – I was still pretty hungry and despite what Blake thought of it, the revelation that she was a faunus wasn't too important to me.

'_That sounded insensitive, you ass.'_

It mattered to me because it mattered to her, but I had food in front of me – biscuits and gravy, no less. Call it multi-tasking. Still, I could understand why she thought it was such a big deal – most humans in Remnant wouldn't be as receiving of her as I was.

Blake sat very still for at least thirty more seconds, studying the photo intently, before she handed it back.

"She's cute," the girl muttered. Then: "Thank you."

"No problem," I grinned. "You know, Ruby said the same thing about her."

Blake met my eyes, surprised.

"Yeah, she knows," I said. "Yang does too, for that matter. You should try telling them. Secrets between teammates won't work, not in the long run."

"I know," she said, defeated. "But you must have seen how people see faunus. Criminals and thugs and so many other things are said about us that just _aren't true_!"

"Those people are out there, in Vale. In here, with your _team_, it doesn't matter what you are."

"You don't know that," Blake said, frowning when I offered her a shrug in response.

"Maybe not, but if _anyone_ gives you trouble," I said, meeting her eyes. "I've got your back."

She fell silent and looked down at her tuna sandwich, poking at the bread even as a smile spread across her face.

* * *

Blake and I returned to the dorm room just in time to hear an obnoxious whistling sound followed by a _thud_.

We hesitated, sharing a glance, before I shrugged and let us into the room.

"There you are," Ruby yelled, suddenly a scant few inches from my face before I even had a chance to take in the rest of the room. I recoiled and just as suddenly as she appeared, she was gone, now in front of Blake.

"Blake! Where were you two?!"

"Eating," the girl said neutrally, I could tell she had no idea what to make of our leader at that instant. She had that same look on her face when I told her that her faunus nature didn't matter to me.

Ruby gasped and her eyes widened. "_We_ need to eat too! But we need to unpack!"

Since my leader was now distracted, I used the lack of attention to find Weiss and Yang. The former was still in her nightgown and – oddly enough – sitting on the floor next to her bed, scowling. The latter was relaxing _on_ her bed, arms crossed and a grin on her face.

I edged toward Yang while the leader of team RWEBY started to try and prioritize unpacking and eating. The blonde, like her sister, was in Beacon's uniform. Weiss was in her pale blue nightgown while Blake had on the same purplish-blackish leggings, white shorts, white undershirt and black vest that she did yesterday.

"Did she have… sugar, coffee, _something_ this morning," I asked Yang quietly.

She laughed. "Nope, _apparently _she drinks milk now." The blonde winked at me and I suddenly felt like I missed something. "This is just her when she's just excited. You should have seen her when she got accepted into Beacon early…"

"Huh," I grunted, more focused on watching Ruby have a one sided discussion with Blake than anything. The girl had put her red, hooded cloak onto the back of her uniform-

"How did you guys get your uniforms?"

Yang shrugged. "They were here when we woke up. Yours is on your bed over there."

I followed where she was pointing and, sure enough, found a male version of the uniform waiting for me. Without thinking about it, I pulled my shirt over my head as I offered the blonde a quick thank you. Immediately, the room went silent and I realized what the issue was as soon as Yang wolf whistled.

'_Right, modesty. Putting a bunch of male and female teenagers in the same room was a horrible, __**horrible**_ _idea.'_

"Sorry about that," I called to the room at large as I made my way over to the bathroom. Weiss was outside the door now and I offered the blushing girl an exaggerated 'after you' gesture. She shook her head and stepped out of the way, still looking at the ground. I entered, rather annoyed that I couldn't just change my clothes wherever I wanted anymore.

"Man, it's been _too long_ since I've seen those muscles," Yang called as I shut the door. It was likely done to embarrass her little sister more, the girl's face was already completely red.

'_Teenagers.'_

* * *

_Later that day_

I watched with the rest of the class as Weiss grew ever more frustrated with the Boarbatusk across from her.

_Blood. Detailed on-_

No. No!

I was over this. I was over this and I'd _been_ over it since that talk with Ruby.

A shout from the very same girl pulled me from my thoughts and I glanced her way. She was in the row below me and currently cheering on Weiss as the heiress took on the Grimm in front of all thirty-some first years. The white haired girl was doing alright but something was clearly bothering her. The set of her jaw was a little too rigid to be explained away by combat entirely. Even-

'_Come on, Weiss.'_

Her rapier-like weapon – I still didn't know its name, I'd have to ask her – was torn from her grasp when she bumbled her way into getting it locked in the Grimm's tusks. That prompted Ruby to yell a string of encouragements; in the otherwise silent class room, the shouting was slightly grating. It was only ever broken by the professor's commentary and the sounds of Weiss' battle. Still, I couldn't begrudge the girl her enthusiasm. Better that she use it on positive outlets like cheering than negative ones, like jeering.

Weiss finally, _finally_ managed to end the retched Grimm's life some time later. It took far longer than it should have and she probably wasn't happy about it, if the fierce grimace on her face was any indication. The professor promptly dismissed the class at that point and I wasted no time in rising to leave – the man was incredibly long winded. Not to mention absurdly boring and self-centered. The fact that I had no desire to deal with an angry Weiss might have played into my quickened pace as well.

"What's with her," Ruby said behind me and I turned, having just reached the door, to find Weiss storming from the tiered classroom – it reminded me of a lecture hall from Earth. Blake and Yang were facing away from me, watching the girl go, but Ruby was facing me with a distressed look on her face. Resigned, I started toward them.

"What's going on," I said when reached them. Ruby had ran from the room while I was moving toward them but Yang and Blake were still there. It was the blonde that turned to face me, a frown on her face.

"Something's going on with Weiss. Ruby went to talk to her."

My brow furrowed and I started after Weiss and Ruby at the same time Blake did. I was all for letting the Schnee heiress cool down on her own but now that Ruby was trying to help, that option was no longer available.

"Wait," Yang called, halting the both of us. "I think… Something might have happened between them in the forest."

When she didn't continue, Blake and I shared a look. This didn't sit well with me.

I looked back to Yang.

"So," I ventured. "You want us to… ignore it?"

The blonde shook her head. "No! Just, let them work it out, you know?"

"Team issues should be dealt with by the entire team," Blake observed. Again, she refrained from making any sort of suggestion.

'_She doesn't want to take charge. Put herself out there. Growing up as a faunus couldn't have been easy on her.'_

"-only mad at Ruby," Yang was saying.

"What was that? She's only mad at Ruby?"

The girl glanced my way. "Yeah, I think Weiss might have an issue with Ruby in particular."

My eyes narrowed and I felt anger well up in me; the look on Yang's face told me that she wasn't too pleased about it either.

I snorted and turned to go find Ruby and Weiss. My mind was a whirlwind of disjointed thoughts all of the sudden and rational thinking was far from possible. I probably wasn't in a good state to defuse a fight and I knew it but I couldn't just stand by and do _nothing_ while Ruby bumbled into getting herself verbally abused.

I thought Weiss an obnoxious heiress with a potential grudge against the faunus when I first met her but given she was a member of my team, I wanted to withhold my judgment until I grew to know her better. Maybe I gave her too much credit.

'_Ruby would never do something to deserve any hatred,'_ I told myself as I made my way out into the hallway; I heard Yang and Blake's shoes _click_ on the floor behind me. Neither said anything.

There was no one in the hallway, no sound at all outside of the three of us, but I wasn't about to give up without a fight. My gait as I walked was a threatening one; I was well aware that this was probably overreacting to something insignificant but it was _Ruby_. Innocence and kindness all bundled up into one far-too-eager, far-too-young package. I wasn't ready to accept she might have been in the wrong here.

"What do you think you're going to do when you find them," Yang asked; she was nearly jogging to keep up with my longer strides.

"Don't know."

"Then maybe you should stop and _think_," she said a little more forcefully.

I ignored her and turned the corner. The hallway expanded into an open-air balcony and I saw Weiss standing on the precipice, alone. She was staring out into the distance, maybe at something in particular, maybe not, I didn't care.

"_Hey_," Yang spat as she grabbed my arm and forcibly swung me around to face her. She looked lost for words now that she had my attention, like she hadn't really planned out the next step of her plan. Just behind her, Blake looked on, silent and wary.

"_What,"_ I snarled, glancing over my shoulder to make sure Weiss was still there. It was becoming harder and harder to control myself.

"Just what do you think you're going to do? Huh? Why did you just fly off the handle all of the sudden?"

"I- I'm going to figure out what Weiss did!" The stutter in my words annoyed me, but what did I want to do? I hadn't thought that far ahead. All I knew was that I wanted to stop the Schnee heiress from doing… _whatever_ she was going to do to Ruby.

"And if she didn't do anything," Yang asked, her voice still harsh. She grabbed my collar and tried to pull me down to her level.

"Are you saying _Ruby_ did something?" I stiffened my spine, resisting until she let go when my shirt started tearing.

The blonde threw her arms up in the air. "Maybe? I don't know! _We_ don't know and _that's _why we should let _them_ take care of it!"

The clicking of high-heeled shoes behind us stopped the argument in its tracks and I spun around to find Weiss approaching us.

I exhaled harshly through my nose. "What-"

"Weiss," Yang said firmly, pushing by me. "What happened?"

"We had an argument," she said quietly, glancing at me out of the corner of her eye. The frown on my face and the glare probably had something to do with it.

I growled and something in Yang must have snapped, she whirled around and got in my face.

"_Why are you so angry?!"_

"I'm not," I bit out, surprised enough by her outburst that my frustration left me.

"_Yes,_ you _are!"_

My eyes narrowed and then it all came rushing back. _'She should be angry too!' _"Well maybe," I spat, taking a step forward and forcing the smaller blonde to step back. "I _care_ about Ru-"

She punched me. _Hard_.

"Don't you _dare_," Yang hissed. "Don't _you dare tell me I don't care about my sister!"_

"What am I supposed to think, then," I yelled, incredulous. Ruby and Weiss had a fight; that much was clear. Yang was supposed to support Ruby, _not _Weiss, so why was she so _neutral?!_

"Ruby can handle herself! _Maybe_, just _maybe_, you can have a little faith in her!"

"I do!"

"Really," she snorted. "Then why the _fuck _are you so mad?!"

"_I'm not mad,"_ I erupted, screaming and throwing my hands up in the air. "I'm not- I…"

I yelled and turned, striking the wall behind me with a Semblance enhanced fist. It cracked horribly, reaching nearly from the floor to the ceiling. An exhilarated rush of satisfaction came over me even as I whirled back around to face Yang.

_Yang._

She was still in front of me. Her arms were crossed and she was scowling fiercely.

Blake and Weiss were behind her, they were the last thought in-

_They were __**scared**__._

My eyes widened and I did a double take; the realization hit me like a wave of cold water. Weiss had stepped behind our blonde teammate, her eyes wide and riveted on my face. Blake was harder to read, but the way she was fiddling with her fingers indicated nervousness at the very least. Their reactions numbed me and chased away my anger, leaving only a feeling of exhaustion behind.

"I… uh," I started, quieter. I swallowed heavily, suddenly my limbs felt like lead and I let my shoulders relax. Was I mad? "Am I mad?"

My head nodded of its own accord even as the blonde in front of me snorted. "Right," I said slowly, more tired and shocked than anything now. "I'm mad… I'm- I _was _mad. Why?"

When did I get angry? It wasn't when Yang told me of Ruby going to talk to Weiss; it wasn't when I learned that something might have happened between the two of them in the forest…

It was when I learned that Weiss was mad at Ruby!

But why? Why then? Why did that set me off?

"I… I need to think," I said absentmindedly. The girls were quiet and the hallway itself emulated that silence. I turned to the balcony and started to move past them.

"Oh no," Yang said, she sounded different. "You don't get to run away from this."

I looked back at her. "I'm not-"

She was crying.

'_I made her cry.'_

Tears were running down her cheeks and her eyes were red. Her arms were shaking where she still had them crossed and her jaw was clenched, like she was making a monumental effort to keep from sobbing. Beside her, Blake stood, eying me reproachfully.

'_As she should.'_

"Okay," I said quietly, rubbing at my eyes. "Okay. Come on."

I led them over to one of the benches on the balcony and sat down, exhaling deeply and just feeling _tired_.

"Ruby should be here," I muttered to myself. She shouldn't be missing this. Whatever _this_ was… I just knew it was something important

"Why," Yang laughed, it sounded forced, almost like she was trying to hide a sob. "You don't think anything of her anyway."

"Right," I said, wincing. "I deserved that. Sorry, Yang."

"Don't apologize to me, idiot," she said, pointing at the far side of the balcony.

And there was Ruby.

'_Well if I wasn't already feeling like a total piece of shit…'_

Seeing her reminded me of just what I'd done, how angry I'd been.

I knew why, now. I knew perfectly well why I flew off the handle at what should have been a minor disagreement. Yang was right, I should have sat back and let Ruby and Weiss settle things but-

_My vision darkening, just like last time. __**Just like last time. Useless.**_

I may have gotten over the guilt I'd laid upon my own shoulders when my parents and my father died, but I sure as hell hadn't learned the lesson.

"I can't be everywhere at once," I muttered to myself as Ruby ran over to Yang, worried. "I can't do everything and I can't protect everyone."

'_She's her own person. I need to accept that if I don't want to hold this team back.'_

"Well," the blonde demanded of me, shaking Ruby off and rubbing at her face. She was glaring at me, eyes bloodshot.

"Right, I flew off the handle when I heard about this… disagreement," I said, mostly for Weiss' and Ruby's benefit. "I thought I was over it. _Past _it."

How to tell them? How was I supposed to tell them that I was an overprotective asshole? That I hadn't been taking them seriously and thought they needed my protection up until now. They were just kids.

'_So are you.'_

"My parents and I went to Forever Fall Forest when I was a kid. I was three, maybe four… I don't know," I started. "I was young."

Ruby's eyes softened and she left Yang's side, placing her hand on my shoulder and I shut my eyes-I couldn't do this-

"More than you deserve," the blonde muttered darkly, sniffling.

My muscles tensed and I scowled even as Ruby scolded her sister.

Just where did she get off? This _wasn't _easy and-

'_Calm down. Calm __**the fuck**__ down!'_

My breathing slowed, evening out. Anger was the very last thing I needed right now. Anger got me into this situation in the first place. Anger never did any favors for me.

"We were attacked," I continued several seconds later. Weiss jumped, like she'd forgotten I was speaking. "It was a Grimm. A Boarbatusk.

"Like the one in the class room," I said slowly, my fists clenching. "With red markings. And _blood!_"

Ruby shook my shoulder and I was forcibly brought back to the present. Maybe it was the emotional roller coaster I'd just put myself through, but the memories of that day were effecting me far more than they normally did. Still, that was no excuse; I had a story to tell and burgeoning relationships to repair.

"Right," I swallowed. "It killed both of my parents that day. Right in front me."

I lifted my head and took a deep breath, suddenly feeling suffocated and utterly tired of feeling all these negative emotions. There was no cleansing feeling this time, not like when I recanted this somber story to Ruby. Now, I was just cleaning up my own goddamn mess. I wanted to be done with it, with these memories, with these emotions, once and for all.

But, like a parasite, they clung to me.

"Fast forward ten or so years, I went to the same forest with my adoptive family. I was playing with my sister, having the time of my life…"

Fond memories flooded into my mind but I forced myself to shake them off. Phoebe almost always managed to bring me out of a funk. She was just too happy, too inquisitive and enthusiastic about the world to be sad around.

"Anyway," I sighed. "Another Grimm found us, a Beowulf this time. I killed it, but only after it tore my father's arm off. He died of blood loss before help could arrive."

I leaned back on the bench and rubbed at the bridge of my nose.

"That's," Blake started quietly and I looked her way.

"That's sad," Yang interjected, quietly. "But it still doesn't tell us why you just blew up on us in the middle of the hallway."

"Sorry," I said again, when she moved to speak I cut her off. "No, I _am _sorry. I'm sorry for blowing up on you like that. You didn't deserve it. You were right; you were right all along and I was an fool for ignoring you."

I turned to Weiss. "I'm sorry for making assumptions about you. You deserve more from me; you're someone beyond just the Schnee heiress."

The white haired girl looked shocked but I didn't take any time to observe her further, focused as I was on pressing forward.

"And Ruby, I'm sorry I thought you couldn't handle..." I made a gesture at the balcony. "_This._ You can stand up for yourself. You don't need me to protect you all the time."

The girl smiled softly. "It's an admirable trait," she offered.

"It would be," I laughed derisively. "After losing three parents and thinking it was my fault I went on a self-destructive crusade to become strong enough to protect my loved ones." A scoff escaped me. "Well, it worked. I'm stronger now. But I'm also an over-protective jerk."

"Well," Ruby started slowly. "Without your _quest_, you never would have met me and Yang!"

This time the laugh that forced itself from me was genuine. Trust Ruby to always look on the bright side.

"You're an idiot," Yang said harshly, but then she let a small smile form on her face. "But at least you have good intentions. You're just a _misguided_ idiot."

A surprised smile formed on my face to mirror hers. "Does this mean I'm forgiven?"

She considered me for a moment. "You're brushing my hair every night. For a week. Got it? And don't _ever_ do this again!"

"Yes mistress," I snarked, my tone dry. She grinned fully this time and threw her feet up on my lap, lounging across Blake – who was in between us – and onto Weiss behind her.

"You may address me as Queen Yang, servant."

I sighed, half relived, half exasperated but extremely thankful that the worst had passed.

"Hmmm," Ruby hummed slowly. "A kid eager to prove herself, a self-entitled heiress out of her element, a dork with a protective streak miles wide, a… uhhh."

"A girl with trust issues," I offered and Blake shot me an annoyed look.

"Sure," Ruby crowed. "Aaaaand a hothead!"

"A hothead?!"

"Duh, your hair catches fire."

"Oh," Yang said, relaxing again. "I thought you meant-"

"And you have a _reaaaaally _short fuse!"

We all laughed this time. A band of misfits for sure, but we could make it work. Of that, I was certain.

* * *

_That night_

"Okaaaaay, team RWEBY!"

The four of us looked toward Ruby as one. The younger girl was standing in the middle of our recently re-organized dorm with her hands thrust up in the air, on her face was a wide grin.

"New idea!" She fell silent then, an eager look on her face as she let anticipation build. I almost told her, jokingly, that she looked more excited about her new idea than we did, but I didn't want to ruin her fun.

"Team discussion night," she cheered, throwing her arms in the air again.

I glanced back down at my Scroll, where I was trying to recreate Tetris; it was a simple game from Earth that turned out to be not-so-simple to recreate. I was on my fifth month of the effort and it was slow going. A break-through was close, I could feel it…

"Enten," Ruby called. "You too Weiss!"

She, Yang and Blake were sitting in a circle in the center of the room. Weiss, like myself, was hesitating.

"Alright, alright," I conceded at length as I walked over, waving my Scroll at her. "You're depriving Beacon of a wonderful game, though."

She shrugged off my warning with a cheeky smile. "That's _right!_ That's what I want us to talk about, stuff we do that we don't know we do!"

Yang snorted but her younger sister continued, determined. "Like you," she said, pointing at me. "You do stuff with quills!"

'_Apps.'_

Regardless of what I wanted to call it, that got Blake and Weiss' attention.

"You know how to make quills," Weiss asked, her eyebrows arched in what I thought was surprise.

I nodded, eager to talk about the skill but hesitant at the same time. Often, when I got going on programming I'd quickly become unintelligible to people who couldn't program themselves. It was something that I'd never learned how to avoid.

'_It's hard to describe a different language, using that language, to someone who doesn't know that language… never mind the other ones.'_

Instead, I brought forth my Scroll and opened up QuikPik. I found the developers' notes section in short order and presented it to Weiss.

Her eyes widened. "_You _made QuikPik," she said, flabbergast, even as she glanced at… Yang?

'_Odd.'_

"No way," Ruby yelled, stunned. "You made something we _use?_"

If I didn't know the girl better, I would have thought that an insult…

Apparently the app was quite popular on Beacon's campus. I didn't know, I hadn't checked the numbers in months. My attention was focused elsewhere, like on my old job at the super market or, more recently, Beacon. As long as the money came in every month then I didn't have a reason to check on the app's statistics. Any updates and bug fixes I uploaded didn't bring me through the page that displayed that information.

"Why didn't you tell us," Yang said excitedly and before I could get a word in edgewise. She was bouncing on the floor now.

I shrugged, more uncomfortable than eager in the face of their enthusiasm. "It never really came up."

"QuikPik," Blake prompted from her spot in front of her bed. She and Yang paired up with bunk beds while Ruby and Weiss did the same on the opposite side of the sole window in the room. My bed was placed against the far wall, _far away_ from their disastrous attempt to make bunk beds work.

'_Because stacking books between the beds doesn't make them bunk beds.'_

Suspending a bed with a sheet and some rope above another one didn't make it a bunk bed either.

"It's only the single _greatest_ quill _ever_," Yang exclaimed before I could respond, flattering me greatly. A smile grew on my face even as the girl brought out her Scroll and, laughing with what I could only describe as a maniacal grin, fiddled with it for a few seconds. I saw the QuikPik interface and… Weiss' Scroll buzzed in alarm.

The white haired girl glanced down at it and then back up at Yang, unamused. "Very funny, Yang."

The blonde laughed. "I thought so!"

"What'd you send her," Ruby asked, looking quite put out to not be part of the joke. When her older sister only grinned back at her, the girl huffed and formed her lips into a pout.

"Oh relax," Yang said, shaking the girl's shoulder. She paused and then leaned in closer. "Remember vomit boy?"

Vomit boy? What kind of name…

"Yeeees," Ruby said slowly. "He was- Oh! Oh…" She trailed off into a giggle and then turned towards Weiss. "He likes yooooou," she sang.

"I _know_, Ruby," the heiress bit out even as Yang laughed.

"He does have nice forearms," Blake commented and a creeping feeling of cold started to envelop me amid my surprise at hearing Blake Belladonna gossip.

Was this girl talk? How was it this awkward to be here right now? Was it only just getting started?

I blinked even as Weiss blushed under the other girls' teasing remarks.

'_Oh, this is ending. Now.'_

"Spare me the giggling," I said dryly, taking my Scroll back from Weiss. "You can talk about how hot and bothered 'vomit boy' makes you when I'm not around."

Ruby failed at stifling her giggling behind her hand. "Vomit boy," she chortled, amused even as Blake threw me a smile that looked _far _too pleased for my liking.

"Aww," Yang, meanwhile, cooed. "Is widdle Enten feewing uncomfortable?"

'_You are not going to win this game. Not when I watched you stumble through your first relationship.'_

So much ammunition.

"Speaking of uncomfortable, remember that poem you made-"

She cut me off, screeching as she body checked me into the ground.

* * *

**A/N:** This was a productive weekend for me. I got all of chapter 10, most of 11 and bits of 12 written out – good thing too, I'm going to be moving at the end of the month so that'll be taking up quite a bit of my time over the next 2-3 weeks.

Thank you to all my reviewers, to all my favoriters and to all my followers! You guys are awesome! I love seeing this kind of response on a story that I really wasn't sure would be well received!

Now: I have one review in particular to which I wanted to respond…

A guest mentioned that I hadn't yet described Enten's physical appearance – this is true and it was done intentionally. When you read my story I want you guys to be able to feel as though you _are _Enten. Or at the very least, imagine the story from his PoV. I feel giving him an appearance would make that harder by alienating the people who do not have similar features. I'll describe the clothes that he's wearing or the scars that he has so you can get a general picture but I want to leave the finer details up to you guys.

Let me know if you agree/disagree with that. I'm interested in hearing your opinions because I really only have mine to work off of!

(01/12/2016): Revised.

Again, thank you all for the support!

-Phailen


	6. Chapter 6

_Three days later, Week 1_

"So," I said, propping myself up on the nightside table by the bed. "Tell me about yourself."

Weiss, who looked up when I approached, shot me an unimpressed look. "You mean like we've been doing for the past three nights now?"

"Haughty aren't you," I quipped, continuing before she could get a word in edgewise. "No, we learned about Weiss the heiress. I want to know about Weiss the _person_."

"What do you mean," she said, her brow furrowed. She lowered the homework she was doing before to the bed beside her. The two of us were alone in the dorm room.

"Your father signed you up for singing lessons when you were a toddler and you've kept at it ever since. He signed you up for fencing lessons. He signed you up for etiquette classes. He did this for you, he did that for you…"

I shook my head and leaned in closer. "What's something _you_ took it upon yourself to do?"

She looked shocked – because I cared enough to ask or she honestly never thought of the question before, I did not know.

"I, well," she started, looking down at her lap. "I like to… bird watch."

"They _are_ pretty," I agreed. Birds never interested me beyond the fact that they pooped on everything and that was a pretty negative interest – it would be good to see things from the other side for once. "Why do you like to bird watch?"

"They're free… And I was cooped up in my room with nothing else to do," she said quietly, sourly.

That made sense to me. A younger Weiss would probably be resentful of having so little control over her life, what better way to wish for more than by watching something that could fly away whenever it wanted? "Why were you cooped up in your room?"

"Why do you care," she shot back, not unkindly but it was easy to hear the annoyance in her voice.

It was a good question, though. Why did I care?

"I suppose it all started with the argument you and Ruby got into a few days back. I didn't realize it at the time but I blamed you outright because I _knew_ Ruby would never do anything mean on purpose. I didn't know anything about you… it was easier."

She stayed silent, watching me, so I continued.

"Fast forward a couple days to yesterday at lunch. I overheard Jaune," she winced here, "waxing on about how beautiful you were. How pale your skin was. How pretty your hair was… I considered getting involved but since I didn't really know you, I figured it'd be best not to intervene."

"So," she ventured slowly. "You want to get to know Weiss Schnee now? Is that it?"

"No," I said, shaking my head. "I want to know Weiss, the 'W' in team RWEBY. Not Weiss Schnee the heiress. Not Weiss Schnee the singer. Not Weiss Schnee the fencer. I want to get to know the _real _Weiss."

"Oh," she said softly. She ducked her head again but before she did I could have sworn I saw a blush on her cheeks. Was she nervous? Maybe she was just touched, it was probably rare for her to have someone take an interest in her beyond her name and beauty.

She looked back up and her complexion was back to that almost frighteningly-pale white shade. "Well, alright then. But you have to tell _me _about _you_ too."

I smiled, amused. I had very few qualms about sharing information about myself, given that they already knew the somber story of my parents' deaths.

"My name is Enten Melkweg. I have a little sister that I cannot say no to-"

"You have a sister? So do I!"

"Younger or older," I asked as I reached for my wallet.

"I'm the heiress, remember," she said, smirking.

"Right now you're just Weiss," I snarked. "Younger or older?"

She made a surprised sound that was somewhere between a grunt and a laugh. "Younger."

"Me too," I said, offering her the family picture.

She gasped. "_Awwww!_ She's so _cute!_"

Were my ears playing tricks on me or did Weiss just squeal?

"You know, Blake and Ruby said the exact same thing." It was almost a running joke to me now. A crazy thought popped into my head then; maybe I should show the picture to everyone on campus and see how many 'cute' comments Phoebe got. My sister would be ecstatic to know so many potential huntresses and hunters had seen her picture.

During the lapse in conversation, the white haired girl across from me fell silent. When I looked back at her, she had a frown on her face.

"Something wrong," I asked. She was still looking at the picture.

"They're faunus."

The flat tone of her voice was something that I was familiar with and my expression darkened. I wasn't offended – this situation was far too familiar to me to induce feelings like that anymore – but I _was _disappointed. I _was _wary. If the white haired girl was put off by the fact that my family were faunus without even meeting them then how would she take Blake's status as a faunus and the fact that she deceived the team to hide it? My guess: not well.

I frowned and Weiss must have seen it because she hastened to clarify.

"Not that it's a bad thing! I just… Schnee Dust Company has had a lot-"

I cut her off by placing my hand over her mouth. Her eyes went wide in what I thought was outrage. "I don't care about Schnee Dust Company, Weiss. I care about what _you _think."

Her anger was replaced by surprise and her brow furrowed. "I…" She hesitated, swallowing. Half a dozen emotions flitted across her face as I waited. Eventually, after several seconds of silence, the girl spoke.

"I don't like how they attack my family," she said quietly. "I don't like how they hate my Grandfather's legacy. I don't like how they _steal_ from us!

"I grew up being lectured about faunus and how dangerous they were. I was told not to go near them because if they knew who I was then they would hurt me! They…" She swallowed again and slowly shook her head, her eyes unfocused. "I was so scared of them."

The last sentence was a whisper so quiet that I barely caught it. I realized then that I underestimated the amount of stress a younger Weiss went through because of the faunus. It made me bitter to admit it, but the girl was justified in her prejudice. Or was it fear? Maybe a little of both… at any rate, she was not wrong. There were faunus out there that would have liked nothing better to get their hands on Schnee Dust Company's young heiress. Those people were the reason the faunus as a whole carried such a horrid reputation among the denizens of Remnant.

"There are some despicable people out there, Weiss," I said quietly, meeting the girl's eyes. "You were right to be wary of them. Doesn't matter what rumors surround your family, violence and crime is never the right answer."

She looked down and I swallowed, unsure of how to proceed. The girl held a deep seeded fear of the faunus that expressed itself as prejudice. Ironically enough, it was through her family's attempts to keep her safe that she received the phobia. I was almost certain that she didn't even realize what she was doing too.

"Have you met a faunus before," I asked.

She mutely shook her head, sighing heavily.

"Maybe I'll introduce you sometime," I continued, nodding at the photo in her hands. "Give you a chance to meet a faunus that hasn't turned to crime for their well-being."

Weiss smiled hesitantly and I realized it was a very pretty smile. It was also the first time I'd seen it.

"I'd like that," she said softly. A pause, then: "She _is _cute."

"I know it and so does she," I said, laughing. "You know this one time she got into the pantry while Mom was at the neighbor's and unraveled _all_ the paper towels… She thought it was the only way to make it stop raining outside – she wanted to go play."

Weiss laughed with me and I felt myself grinning, glad that the heavy moment was behind us.

"Just wait until I tell you about the time Winter and I tried to make ourselves bunk beds…"

* * *

_The next day, Week 1_

The end of my first week at Beacon brought with it my first scheduled dueling class. It also brought with it a darker, more cunning aspect of Beacon's culture to which I was blissfully ignorant.

Professor Goodwitch started off the class by lecturing the first year students on the importance of teamwork and the strength that came with cooperation. This appeared to be normal at Beacon because every other professor started their class the same way. But then, she mentioned students from the upper years would often observe their underclassmen's dueling lessons; she even went as far as pointing out and introducing two second years and a third year.

The girls didn't think much of the older students' presence but I found it odd, even suspicious, that they were here. Their names and teams were saved in my Scroll immediately: Coco Adel from CFVY, Naranka Vino from ONGE and Melnach Fudan from MCRY. I would have to do some research on them later, to learn more about them and their activities at Beacon.

There was a reason they were here, a motive that I could not see; something beyond an idle interest in judging who was the strongest of the first years. They wanted something from us, else why would they be here watching our class? Some kind of self-serving interest, surely, but I just didn't know enough about them or about Beacon to have any idea of what it might be.

Our dueling class occurred on Fridays and lasted half the day; we got the rest off. The second years' dueling class was held on Thursdays and, likewise, their weekends started after it finished. The third years had their class on Wednesdays and the fourth years on Tuesdays. As students progressed through the years at Beacon, they were given more free time to better themselves and their teams; more freedom in how they trained and what they learned. Why watch first years pummel each other into the ground when they could probably be doing something far more useful?

I might have been overreacting but it struck me as odd that they would go out of their way to attend a class that held no obvious value for them.

At any rate, I couldn't do anything about my suspicions right now so I put those thoughts from my mind.

"Kinda sad," Yang commented from my left, pulling me fully from my thoughts. "But he needs to get better if he wants to be a hunter."

I turned my attention to the stage to find that a duel had started while I was busy thinking. It was between Jaune and a spear wielding boy.

Almost immediately, a grimace formed on my face. "I don't think he's fought with that shield for very long. He doesn't keep it in a position to guard himself at all. It's all over the place."

Indeed, the boy held his shield in such a way that it moved with every twitch of his arm. It had to be nearly impossible to score a solid block like that – though he did wield the shield horizontally, a configuration more tuned for offense rather than the defensive diagonal angle in which I wielded mine. Given that, I would have expected him to attack more often but in the ten seconds I'd been watching, he launched no attacks and was only partially successful at blocking the other boy's blows.

My eyes found the display hanging above the stage. It showed Jaune's Aura at _30%_ while the boy – Fuoco Pilum from team SAFR – was sitting at _93%_.

"This is a train wreck," Weiss muttered from my other side as Jaune was kicked across the stage. In front of us Ruby sat watching the fight avidly while Blake lounged about, reading a book.

The fight ended quickly after that and Goodwitch explained the Aura meters – health bars, as I had come to think of them – for Jaune's benefit.

"We all have to start somewhere," I said, for lack of anything positive to say of the match. I bumped my shoulder into Yang's and stood up. "Come on blondie, let's give 'em a fight."

Her face went from unimpressed to ecstatic in half a second flat. The girl jumped up with an exhilarated shout that drew Goodwitch's attention.

"Well, I see we have a pair of volunteers," she nodded. "It is refreshing to see such enthusiasm."

"_Woooo," _Yang yelled as she vaulted from the stands onto the stage. I dropped down more sedately but forewent using the stairs as well. It still excited me to be able to fall several stories without even risking a sprain.

Aura was amazing.

When I reached Jaune on the stage, I clapped him on the shoulder and offered him a hand up.

"You'll get better," I assured him. "Just takes time."

He did not respond and only nodded dejectedly, slouching off to the stands. I watched him go for a second or two but held my tongue; the boy's lack of combat ability was not my problem. That was something his team should take care of.

I turned my attention back to the stage and placed myself opposite Yang. Aegis burst into life and, with a solid _clank_, it was locked into place on my right arm in short order.

"Big shield, too bad it ain't gonna do anything," the blonde taunted as she urged Ember Celica into its boxing glove-esque form. The bright yellow gauntlets were capable of firing shotgun shells too, if the girl ever found herself unable to close with her opponents.

Any retort I might have had was cut off when Goodwitch abruptly inserted herself in between us.

"You will spar using strictly non-lethal attacks and stop immediately when I say so. Otherwise, if you hear the bell chime then the duel is over. No exceptions. Am I clear?"

We both muttered our agreement and Goodwitch went to stand in her judge's platform, off to the side of the stage and near the base of the stands. Once there, she glanced at both Yang and myself.

"Begin."

And just like that, the spar was on.

Yang immediately fired a pair of shells behind her and rode the momentum forward, coming in hard with a high kick that I was easily able to duck under. She landed behind me and spun expertly to launch a killer right fist at my unprotected left side.

I utilized my Semblance to blast myself inside her guard before she could make contact though, interrupting her jab with a shield slam that sent her stumbling back. Quickly, I brought Aegis to bear and fired the shield at her, following in its path as swiftly as I could.

She side stepped the shield and then lunged at me with an elbow. I redirected it downward, throwing her off balance. Before I could capitalize, though, she spun herself in line with her momentum and I suddenly had a boot flying toward my face.

I grunted when I was forced to block the brunt of the blow with my forearms but managed to stop her attack and throw her leg back, unbalancing her again. She quickly regained her feet, stumbling but upright, only to find Aegis flying at her face on its return path. Desperately, she threw herself to the ground and I took the opportunity to plant a Semblance-enhanced kick in her gut as she was standing.

Aegis settled back on my arm just as Yang skidded to a stop on the platform. Her hair was simmering now, and I knew I couldn't push my luck any further. I would have to go on full offense from this point forward.

The blonde girl was a tricky opponent. You either had to outlast her, something her Semblance made impossibly difficult, or put her down hard and fast, before she could use it.

I was opting for the latter of the two options.

Aegis collapsed itself and I blasted forward with a Semblance enhanced charge. One, two, three strides and I'd crossed fifty feet of the platform. My right fist lashed out in a jab when I reached her. She saw it coming, though, and ducked under it; I felt a fist impact my side before I was able to send my elbow at her face on the return path of my jab and she dodged that as well.

Abruptly, I thrust my leg forward, sending a blast of my Aura at her legs to destabilize her. She shouted, dismayed, and I pushed my advantage.

A left cross rocked her chin followed by three quick right jabs. She was stumbling back now and I landed another left-right combo, though this one was blunted by her guard. Still, it managed to keep her on the defensive and I went in with a brutal upper cut that shattered her guard and caught her on the chin. My Semblance enhanced the blow to the point where it actually lifted her off her feet and threw her backward.

A quick glance at the health bars told me she still had over half of her Aura left. She had just about as much as I did and it made her stupidly hard to fight.

I expanded Aegis and shot it toward her in a smooth motion that took less than a second to pull off. She side stepped the shield again, slightly off balance, but was caught completely off guard when another blast of Aura – fromAegis – hit her in the gut.

Aegis' chain, glowing with the Aura I channeled through it, stopped and abruptly started reeling itself in as I reached her. I swept her feet out from underneath her and she went down with a surprised yell. Aegis latched back onto my right arm just as I threw it downward at the girl, my attempt to end the fight before she could recover enough to bring her Semblance to bear. Her hair was smoldering now, if it actually caught _fire_…

I was in trouble.

She turned and managed to take Aegis' blunted tip – because it was a spar, not a real battle – in the arm rather than the gut. Still, her teeth ground together as she got her legs between us. It was a fast maneuver and, off balance as I was from my gambit, I wasn't able to keep from being flung back.

I landed hard on my back, already scrambling to my feet and got up just in time to see Yang's hair burst into golden flame.

There was an instant where complete silence fell over the practice hall, a combination of awe and interest, likely.

And then it was broken by Ruby, of all people.

"Oooooh, you're in _trouble!_"

'_Thanks, Ruby.'_

And then, Yang was on me. Her fist rocketed forward, impacting Aegis with a massive _clang_ and sending me sliding back from the sheer force of it. Before I had a chance to blink, she was there again, above me this time.

_BlockBlockBlock__**Block!**_

I barely got Aegis lifted up in time and the power behind her drop kick made my arm shake. It held, though only just.

She bounced off my shield and I immediately grew wary when I felt the weight leave my arm. Before I had a chance to move, I heard a gunshot.

'_Recoil… Shit.'_

An impossibly strong blow impacted Aegis from above and my arm was thrown downward with the force behind it. I glimpsed Yang in front of me before I felt Celica land a devastating blow on my chin that sent me spinning. Another one immediately hit me in the midsection, empowered further by one of the gauntlet's gun shots.

I hunched over and desperately threw some of my Aura at the ground in front of her, in an attempt to slow her down, but she blew through the force like it wasn't even there. Four rapid fire jabs and an upper cut hit me in short order and then I was flying through the air. It took me a second to shake the cobwebs from my head but when I did I utilized my Semblance to twist about just in time to block a punch from below.

The force behind the attack sent me higher into the air and I glimpsed the health bars – _Yang: 33% Enten: 42%_. A grin formed on my face as Aegis collapsed on my arm; hopefully its gauntlet form would be enough to protect my hand.

I managed to get my feet under me on the back wall of the stage and had just enough time to angle myself toward Yang before gravity took over. I cocked my right fist back and I saw a grin erupt on her face as she did the same.

A roar erupted from my throat as I blasted off the wall with my Semblance, further reducing my health bar, and flew toward Yang. The girl's answering shout of exhilaration was punctuated by the recoil from Celica that sent her rocketing toward me.

Our fists met between our bodies; mine was enhanced with almost one fifth of my Aura and hers with a blast from Celica's gun. I was deafened briefly when a miniature explosion threw us away from each other and tore up a small amount of the stage floor, fifteen feet below us.

I flew, flipping uncontrollably, until the hard, unforgiving ground broke my fall. A groan escaped me – I landed on my shoulder in an awkward position – and I rolled onto my back, breathing heavily. Somewhere else on the stage, I heard Yang huffing and puffing as she moved around.

The bell chime signaling the end of the match sounded then and, unbidden, a laugh burst out of me. Slow and quiet at first, but soon it grew to be loud and full bellied.

I may have been lying spread-eagle and exhausted on the ground, but it was _so_ worth it.

Yang's head appeared in the distance as she sat up, grinning widely. "Looks like I win, partner."

A quick check of the health bars confirmed that she did, indeed, win.

_Yang: 17% Enten 6%_

A short, barked laugh erupted from my throat. "Next time, Yang, I'll find a way around that Semblance."

"Yeah right," she quipped. "I'm too awesome to be beaten."

I snorted. "Unless your head gets any bigger. Now get over here and help me up!"

She did so, still grinning and wincing with every step she took. Eventually, we stumbled off the stage as Goodwitch praised us for our effort. She threw in a comment about going too far but I didn't care.

"That was _fun_."

"Yeah," Yang nodded, helping me up the stairs. "We haven't gone all out like that in _ages!_"

She was right, our last spar would have been almost two months ago. Signal boasted a dueling hall much like Beacon did, smaller but a dueling hall was a dueling hall.

"Nice fight," a girl to our left said. A glance in her direction told me it was Coco, the second year girl from CFVY. Tied up in the duel as I was, I had forgotten about her presence here.

"Thanks," Yang chirped, jostling me just enough to make me yelp. She grinned. "Don't think he's a weakling just 'cause he lost. I'm just a badass."

"Oh, I won't," Coco said, smiling slightly as she turned back to the stage.

We reached the rest of team RWEBY shortly after that and Yang dumped me onto the bleachers. I grunted and fell over, nearly knocking Weiss out of her seat before she pushed me back. I ended up shoulder to shoulder with Yang, too exhausted to move and, judging by the way she slouched, she was too.

"You guys were _awesome_," Ruby cheered in front of us even as Goodwitch called out more names. No one from our team, though.

"That was, like, better than all the fights so far times ten!"

"Careful how loudly you say that, Ruby," Weiss said, exasperated and I snorted. Our leader was anything but subtle.

"Ooooh," the girl in question cooed, excited. "I want to fight now! Weiss-"

"No."

"But wh-"

"No."

"I'll fight you, Ruby," I said, a tired grin on my face. I raised my hand and formed a pistol with my fingers. "Boom, boom, boom. Dead."

Yang chortled next to me and her younger sister pouted… which actually made me feel kind of bad.

"Ah," I half-breathed, half-grunted as I reached out and grabbed Ruby's sleeve, yanking her down to my level. She ended up half in my lap and half standing but I hugged her regardless.

"I'll fight you next time," I said, ignoring the girl's struggling.

"Okay," she bit out, sounding stressed. "Just- lemme go!"

I shared a glance with Yang. She grinned in a lazy manner and shook her head.

'_The jury is decided, then.'_

"Nope."

* * *

_The next morning, Week 1_

I was excited far more than I should be but the laser pointer I ordered in the mail had arrived last night and I really, _really_ wanted to see how cat-like Blake was. It may have been a tad bit immature but I couldn't get the idea out of my head.

Unfortunately Ruby and the rest of the team didn't know about her faunus nature yet so experimenting with this while they were there wasn't possible. While they were asleep, however…

'_Show time,'_ I thought as I fiddled with the device in the bathroom. It was just after my morning shower and Blake…

Yeah, she was up. I stepped fully out of the bathroom and she glanced my way, smiling the same greeting she did every morning. I kept my face blank and her brow furrowed in response. There was just enough pre-dawn light shining through the window that I could see the shadows on the contours of her face.

Then, quick as lightning, I brought the laser pointer to bear.

She flinched but her guarded expression faded and her eyes narrowed when the _'click'_ of the laser pointer activating sounded in the room.

There was a small red dot on her bed, just in front of her.

Blake caught sight of it and immediately glared at me. She held it for one, two, three seconds before I started to get disappointed.

'_Maybe she doesn't-'_

There!

Her eyes twitched and flicked toward the laser.

I felt my lips start to stretch into a grin even I as slowly moved the dot away from her, delighting every time her glare would waver and her eyes would dart toward it, tracking its movement before she realized what she was doing and went back to staring me down.

This continued for several more seconds, the room dead silent, before she drew a line across her throat with her finger.

"You're-"

I flicked the laser onto the wall in front of her.

Her eyes widened and instinctively locked onto the dot, she looked absolutely riveted by it for a second.

Then, she came to her senses and turned her head to glare at me again. Her lips were pressed into a firm line.

'_Oh, this is fun!'_

I moved the laser back onto the bed – her eyes flickered to it – and placed it _right next to her hand_.

She breathed in through her nose as she looked back at me; her hand twitched.

'_Come on…'_

Another twitch, her eyes flicked to the dot before returning to glare at me…

'_Almost…'_

Her hand moved, covering the dot with a soft _'thump'_.

I bit my lip, trying not to laugh and Blake met my eyes one last time. She had a deadpan expression on her face.

"The human body can lose two liters of blood before it runs the risk of expiring," she noted gravely.

* * *

_Friday, Week 2_

It was at the start of the next dueling class that the elder students' interest in us was explained to me.

"Turn your attention to the display on my left," Goodwitch said, arms crossed in front of her Scroll. "You will notice your team names there, each followed by a number. That number is important and will remain important for the next four years you spend here at Beacon Academy."

She paused and manipulated her Scroll. In short order, the display to her left reordered itself so that the team names – formerly in alphabetical order – were now ordered by the number following them.

_CRDL: .75_

_JNPR: .75_

_JYDE: .75_

_EMRD: .5_

_SAFR: .5_

_RWEBY: .4_

_DMND: .25_

_OPUL: .25_

"This is your team's rank according to your performance in last week's dueling class. It may be found simply by totaling the wins you have accumulated thus far and dividing it by the number of members on your team," she continued, shooting a glance at team RWEBY. "Now, as I said previously, these numbers are an integral part of your time here at Beacon."

She manipulated her Scroll again and the display changed to show some kind of record. There were many of them and they had titles like _Eliminate Grimm presence threatening-_ Oh! Missions of some kind.

"Your rank will allow your team preference in selecting field missions. As first years you will not see many, but as second, third and fourth years they will become increasingly common. Those teams with the highest rankings will also be given preference to use Beacon's physical training resources."

Goodwitch turned back to the class just as the display reverted to the team rankings.

"There are many more benefits a high rank can provide you; they will become apparent as you spend more time at Beacon."

There was murmuring among the students now and, upon seeing RWEBY ranked so close to the bottom, I almost wished we had faced members of other teams instead of ourselves. Ruby eventually goaded Blake into fighting her and managed to pull off a win against the older girl while Weiss went up against Pyrrha and lost horribly.

"I see we have Miss Adel with us again," Goodwitch continued, drawing my attention back to the stage. "And Mr Alistair as well, also of team CFVY."

The woman paused to manipulate her Scroll and this time the massive display changed to show an entirely new set of teams and their rankings.

'_The second year teams,' _I realized upon seeing CFVY with the number _.75_ next to it. They were tied with team ONGE.

"Beacon practices a mentorship program wherein older teams will take younger teams under their wing. The younger team will receive advice, training and even field experience from the older team while the older team receives a boost to their ranking dependent upon the younger one's class standing."

And there it was. The reason. The explanation for why the older years would waste time watching the first year students fight.

'_They're scouting us out.'_

The entire class was talking now, not even bothering to keep their voices down. Ruby, Yang and Weiss were among the students who were whispering while Blake and I stayed silent. Belatedly, I remembered to save Alistair's name in my Scroll alongside Adel's – I would have to do some research on them, now more than ever.

"Your attention please," Goodwitch said, sounding half way between impatient and annoyed. "I have one further note about your team rankings before we continue with the class: only your single duels will count toward the point total.

"Today," she continued, "we will be focusing on pair and full-team duels, as we will every third week from here on out."

Murmuring broke out among the students again, some excited, some dismayed. I was… I was pretty neutral about the entire thing. These duels would not count toward our team rank and of everyone in team RWEBY, I only knew I was compatible with one person: Blake.

She and I had been sparring nearly every morning over the past two weeks. It wasn't fighting together, but it did allow us to become familiar with each other's fighting styles, much like Yang and I were. But where Yang and I clashed, Blake and I fit together.

Yang was a force of nature in battle. She didn't _need _anyone to take hits for her; it was actually counter-productive for her to have someone do that. Blake, on the other hand, was a scalpel, an assassin's knife. She struck precisely and always tried to end the fight quickly. Her Aura was the smallest on team RWEBY and she knew it; her fighting style reflected it.

She didn't let it hamper her, she adapted to it.

Ruby and Weiss were unknowns to me. I had only ever seen them fight twice; the last dueling class and the initiation. I did not know how well we would work together.

'_And that should be rectified. We're a team, we need to know each other.'_

"Do we have any volunteers," Goodwitch asked, drawing my attention back to the class.

No one stepped forward, a startling change from the eagerness the class displayed when we were doing single duels last week. It made me wonder if any of them had put thought into teamwork.

I looked to Blake, finding her eyes already on me. We were lucky in having found a combat rhythm that suited us both; it was more a happy accident really.

We stood up, silently making our way down to the stage.

"Yeeeeeeeah, team RWEBY!"

Yang laughed with her little sister behind us and Weiss offered us a smile and a few words of good luck.

The heiress had really come out of her shell over the past week; she shared more and more with us every night. She laughed more, smiled more and was generally more expressive around us. She spoke of her favorite foods and the times she managed to get away from her minders on trips to foreign countries. Her little sister was mentioned sporadically though I got the sense there was some distance between the two of them. Still, it was good to see her open up.

'_Ruby's idea of nightly team discussions was sheer brilliance. I don't know if she knew what she was doing when she suggested it but if she did…'_

If she did, then I had grossly underestimated her strategic mind.

"RWEBY! RWEBY! RWEBY!"

I shared an amused look with Blake as we made it to the stage.

'_Or maybe she's just a child who wants her team to get along. Either way, she's made good decisions for us thus far.'_

"I think I see a pattern," Goodwitch murmured, mostly to herself but her voice carried over the practice hall anyway. "Team RWEBY certainly doesn't back down from a challenge, will anyone answer them?"

An attempt to play on the egos of the students. Knowing the teenage mind it-

"We'll take them on," Cardin yelled as he and one of his teammates stood up.

Knowing the teenage mind, such a fragile thing, the challenge would probably work.

"Can you get the little one away from him," Blake asked, her voice quiet.

I nodded. "Focus?"

"The big one."

Another nod of my head signaled my agreement. We did not know whose Aura was stronger, Cardin or his nameless teammate's. Better to take down the boy with the giant mace, though. He could probably ruin Blake in one or two hits whereas his teammate's daggers looked slightly less threatening.

It was a bold, risky assumption. For all we knew, the boy's daggers could have been coated in poison. I didn't like going into this blind but…

'_The simplest plan is often the best one.'_

Our opponents reached the stage and the students – who had been jeering and cheering for both sides – quieted when Goodwitch stepped forward.

"Please update the- thank you. Your Aura meters have been brought up on the screen overhead. As with the single duels, no intentionally lethal attacks are allowed. If I call for a stop in the duel, you will obey me _immediately_. Am I understood?"

She nodded, satisfied, when the four of us acknowledged her in some form. Cardin offered me a nod and, after hesitating, I returned the gesture.

The boy started bullying Jaune in class this past week. I did not know enough to get myself involved, but it did not sit well with me to see him tear into the blond. In the end, as long as nothing particularly vicious happened, it wasn't my problem to solve. That responsibility rested squarely on JNPR's collective shoulders.

Goodwitch stepped back and my mind was forced back to the present.

'_Time for thought later.'_

"Begin!"

I darted forward, in front of Blake, and raised Aegis. Our opponents had charged as well, though they were side by side.

I slid when I neared them, legs first, and utilized my Semblance to knock the dagger wielding boy off his feet. Cardin reached me just as I regained my feet and I raised Aegis to deflect his mace.

It hit the ground with a thud and I was slightly surprised at how easy it was to block the weapon; maybe I should stop using the power behind Yang's blows as a judge of strength?

Blake darted around me on my off side, opposite of where I'd directed the mace, and whipped Gambol Shroud up in a cut that impacted Cardin's chest armor. Before the boy could do so much as curse, she caught him again on the back swing, retreating just as I brought Aegis to bear and used my Semblance to blast the boy back.

A fluid turn had me interposed between our other opponent – who had just reached us – and Blake. His eyes widened when his dagger bounced harmlessly off my shield rather than strike at the girl behind me and I took advantage of his surprise to slam Aegis into his face.

He staggered back, arms flailing, just as Blake vaulted over my shoulder and dragged her weapon across his chest. The boy recovered faster than Cardin – who was just now regaining his feet, some twenty feet away – and lashed out at Blake.

She shifted, though, and the dagger only cut through a shadow. Her Semblance. The real girl was behind me again, allowing me to slam my shield into him and follow up with a vicious uppercut. The favored move of both Yang and I, it caught him on his chin and the Aura I laced into it threw him away from us.

The two of us had a second to breathe before Cardin reached us; the boy was still completely ignoring his teammate. Surely he could see that victory was much less likely when he tried to take us on alone?

Blake pressed her hand against my back, urging me forward, and I obliged her by breaking into a charge. We met Cardin half way and I blasted forward to catch the boy off guard; he was halfway through a swing that would have been timed perfectly had I not closed the last ten feet between us in a split second.

Aegis' blunted tip buried itself in his gut and he hunched over. I felt Blake launch herself off my back and, just as I was withdrawing my shield, she hit our opponent over the head with a drop kick. Gambol Shroud was unsheathed in her hands now and she landed four cutting blows on the boy's back in the space of two seconds.

Cardin stumbled away from us both, blindly swinging his mace at Blake. I intercepted it, though, and she continued her onslaught. One, two, three, four, five-six-seven, eight.

She was _destroying_ him.

The boy fell over, exhausted, and the chime of a bell hit me just as I was looking back to our other opponent. He was still on the ground…

'_We won?'_

I glanced at Blake and found her smiling at me. "When did he go down," I asked, indicating the dagger wielding boy.

Her brow furrowed. "After you hit him, that's why I wanted to charge."

My eyebrows arched in surprise even as Goodwitch started speaking. I hadn't noticed; the lapse in my awareness was harmless in this case but it was still worrying.

'_How did I miss that?'_

"Now," Goodwitch said, turning back to us and giving me a look that I couldn't identify. "Who will challenge Miss Belladonna and Mr Melkweg next?"

Oh, apparently we were fighting again. A glance toward Blake told me she didn't mind and my Aura… Still at 82% while hers was at 100%. I was never hit in the duel but she knew my Semblance took directly from my Aura. Goodwitch didn't but-

Oh. She was probably confused.

"No one," Goodwitch said, disappointed. I chanced a glance at the crowd of students, only now noticing the awed and… timid looks some of them were sporting. Their expressions surprised me.

I knew Blake and I were good but all the students here either went through a preparatory school or passed the strenuous Beacon entrance exams – something I never had to bother with. Maybe the entrance exams were less difficult than they were rumored to be? Or perhaps they just didn't realize we wiped the floor with Cardin and his teammate because the two boys ignored each other and tried to fight Blake and I single handedly.

Regardless, there was the possibility that Yang wasn't just bragging when she said she was one of the best at Signal. If I could keep up with her…

I shook those thoughts from my head, it wouldn't be good for my health if I started to get cocky. The fact that I _might_ be ahead of some first year students meant nothing to the Grimm that could still wipe the floor with me – rare as they might be around the Vale. The second, third and fourth years probably wouldn't have much trouble with me either. Even so, the fact remained…

'_I guess those martial arts classes and the time I spent with Ruby on Aegis might have paid off.'_

It was satisfying to realize that. That my hard work might just be paying off!

I grinned and suddenly hugged Blake on impulse. It probably looked out of place as Goodwitch tried to goad students into volunteering but I didn't care. It was the first time I'd realized that the effort I put into becoming strong was _working_.

"Very well then," Goodwitch said, clearly disappointed. I let go of Blake – the girl had an amused look on her face – and turned to our blonde professor as she addressed us: "You two may return to the stands. Well done."

* * *

_That night_

Our first two weeks at Beacon had come to an end and, all in all, they went pretty well. RWEBY was growing together as a team.

Blake was still keeping her faunus nature a secret but Ruby and Weiss had grown close since their fight and I learned a good lesson about what it meant to believe in my teammates after the melt down.

Still, there was something missing. I was confident in our abilities as individuals; after today's dueling class, I was pretty certain everyone on team RWEBY was at the top of the first year class. As a team, though, I was less certain.

We needed to practice _together_. I knew nothing about fighting with Ruby and Weiss and I only knew how to work together with Blake because we happened to get up at the same time…

I glanced at the girls as they sat in a circle, chatting according to our now-nightly tradition.

"Ruby," I said, waiting for the girl to look up from the book Blake was showing her. The faunus looked at me too, curious.

"I think we should start practicing together as a team."

The girl frowned but Blake nodded. "Team coordination would improve."

"Like," Ruby hesitated, thinking. I could tell she was at least interested. "Kind of like what we did in dueling class today?"

"Yes," I responded. After Blake and I decimated Cardin and the other boy, she teamed up with Yang and put another pair of unfortunate students through complete annihilation. Ruby was beyond pumped up at that point and convinced Weiss to pair up with her. They had no trouble defeating their opponents either though they still got in each other's way from time to time. Blake and Yang were similar in that they were uncoordinated too, the only reason it didn't hurt them was because Blake was content to yield when Yang advanced.

Team RWEBY ended the class with a pairing between myself and Weiss. We took on Ren and Nora, of team JNPR. It was a tough fight, we almost lost it and it served to keep my ego in check. It had been inflating with each resounding victory that team RWEBY pairs won.

By the time Weiss and I had taken the stage, nearly every single student was against us simply because _we did not lose._

At any rate, Weiss and I won, though only just. I found out the hard way that Nora hit as hard as Yang and Weiss found her match in agility in Ren. They worked well together, far better than the white haired girl and I did, and it was only through a combination of our Semblances that we were able to beat them.

Speaking of which…

"I'd like to investigate our Semblances too, Weiss."

Her eyes lit up. "So would I! I've never seen my glyphs react like that before."

In short, I could control them. Or rather… I could move them.

It was late in the duel when we found out, we were desperate because Nora and Ren were whittling down our Auras, slowly but surely. Keeping Nora at bay was a full time job and Weiss wasn't content like Blake to let me absorb blows until an opening presented itself. She and Ren were almost constantly dancing around Nora and I. Our opponents knew each other well enough to capitalize on that proximity but Weiss and I did not. Often I would block Nora's hammer only to find Ren's dagger-guns land a glancing blow on me as he darted by with Weiss on his tail.

At any rate, I passed through one of Weiss' lingering glyphs late in the fight and my senses went haywire. I wasted a lot of Aura to blast Nora away from me because my eyes were watering and I felt noticeably weaker. It took me several seconds to figure out what was going on, but when I saw Weiss' glyph _still_ hovering in front of me it started to come together.

I tried to manipulate it because it felt like it was my Aura and found – to my eternal delight – that I could _move _it. I wasted no time in shooting Aegis through it and watched as the shield impacted Nora with a solid _thud_ and threw the girl across the stage.

"That was one of your glyphs that enhances… speed?"

"Force," she said. "It's more accurate to say it enhances force. The increased speed is just a side effect because _usually_ more force means things move faster."

"I wonder what would happen if I used my Semblance with one of those," I muttered, entranced by the possibility of Weiss' glyphs enhancing my Aura blows.

Weiss frowned. "It only effects Aura… or people that use Aura. Which… how was Aegis effected by it?"

"I use my Semblance to launch it," I answered but she only looked confused. "My Sembl- Oh! My Semblance allows me to utilize my Aura to influence… well, _everything_ around me." I reached for a book on Blake's bed and had it floating in short order. I could not move it farther than a few inches from my palm but the girl's eyes widened anyway. It occurred to me then that she was the only one on team RWEBY who was unaware of my Semblance. Oops.

"That's amazing," she said.

Was that jealousy I heard?

"It's not as great as it sounds," I said dryly. "It-"

"It makes him super weak when he uses it," Yang inserted helpfully, grinning at her sister when Ruby sent a reproachful look at her. "That's why he hides behind a huge shield. He can't take a hit!"

I was at a loss for words so instead I decided on a practical demonstration of my Semblance.

The yelp Yang made when she was flung from her bunk – the _top _bunk – was like music to my ears.

Immature? Maybe. But so satisfying…

* * *

**A/N: **So this chapter got away from me. It started out at something like 5k words and ended up around 8k. I blame the team rankings – I never meant to make those explanations drag on so much.

I'm moving over this next weekend so there won't be a chapter posted while I get settled in at my new place.

(01/12/2016) Revised. And, because I realize now that some of the team names don't have obvious pronunciations…

CRDL: Cardinal

JNPR: Juniper

JYDE: Jade

EMRD: Emerald

SAFR: Sapphire

RWEBY: Ruby

DMND: Diamond

OPUL: Opal

Thanks for reading! Drop me a review if you have the time!

-Phailen


	7. Chapter 7

_One week later, Week 3_

I ambled through Beacon's grand halls at a leisurely pace, it was midday Friday, just after the first years' dueling class.

I lost – again – but that was alright; my match was against Nora. She beat me when Weiss and I faced her and Ren so the fact that it happened again was not too surprising. The reach her hammer gave her and the power behind her swings made closing with her incredibly dangerous for me. Often I would end up using my Semblance just to enter melee combat and we usually matched each other blow-for-blow there.

A wince tore through me and I rolled my right shoulder, trying to alleviate the pain. My shield arm was _sore_.

The rest of team RWEBY did pretty well too, especially considering Goodwitch started randomizing the matchups to ensure the numbers were as fair as possible. Yang and Blake faced members of team DMND, a team that was quickly gaining the unfortunate reputation of being the weakest of the first year groups, and both walked away victorious. Weiss was matched up against Jaune and I was grateful that the girl did not let her resentment of him influence her in the fight – she stayed controlled throughout the entire thing and won pretty easily.

Ruby, unfortunately, lost when she went up against team SAFR's, Regen Wasser. The boy was intelligent and controlled the match from the beginning with his halberd. There was a hook on the end of the weapon that, alongside his greater weight, allowed him to disrupt the vast majority of Ruby's momentum based attacks. It wasn't a one sided fight by any means but I know RWEBY's leader was disappointed in her performance.

By the end of the dueling class, RWEBY was left with a total ranking of _1_ even. We ended up tied with team CRDL for fifth place of the eight first year teams. CRDL used to be tied for first but after only taking home one win this week, they dropped significantly in the standings. The irony over the fact that their performance dropped so substantially after Goodwitch randomized the matchups did not escape me.

All in all, a _1 _out of a maximum of _2 _wasn't too bad. The highest point value a team could receive in any given dueling class was one point; there were fifteen weeks in a semester and ten of those weeks held singles dueling classes so a maximum of ten points were possible in every semester.

I turned a corner – still lost in thought – and nearly ran right into Coco Adel, the leader of team CFVY and frequent spectator of the first years' dueling classes. Behind her were her teammates, Fox… something and the large boy. He wore green armor and stood about a half foot taller than I did. Yashimaru? I was horrible with names.

"Careful Champ," Adel drawled, adjusting her beret. It almost fell during our-near collision. The preciseness with which she positioned it and the fact that not a single hair on her head was out of place led me to believe she cared greatly for her appearance, more than Weiss did, even.

"See something you like," she continued, coy now, and I realized then that I was staring.

I could not keep the frown off of my face completely; staring was no way to make a good first impression, something I tried to do out of habit more than anything. People tended to assume the worst about me when I was with my family, showing them that I was polite and considerate went a long way to improving their opinion of me and – by extension – my family.

"Sorry," I said, smiling softly. "Just lost in thought."

That said, I started to slide around them. There were a lot of things on my mind today and among them was the headmaster. The man made good on his promise to 'hire' me to write software-

"Hold on Champ," Adel's voice said behind me. "You never told me what you think."

A single eyebrow arched in surprise. "What I think?"

She smiled wryly and I noticed the shorter boy next to her bristle. "You got an eyeful of me," she said, flipping the long strand of brown hair she kept immaculately positioned by the side of her head. It was the only part of her hair that she bothered coloring, evidenced by the bright red color of its tip. "So, what do you think?"

My eyes narrowed. This was…odd. The smile on her face, the way her head was tilted… was she flirting?

Somehow, I did not think so. I did not know her well enough to be familiar with her behavior but to throw herself at me like this spoke of either extreme confidence that I would not reject her or extreme desperation to have me. I still firmly believed that no teenager was truly confident in who they were; that self-assurance was something that only came from life experience and wisdom. _I _wasn't truly confident in who I was; there was no way Coco Adel had that kind of insight.

And the desperation? If I saw correctly then she had a willing recipient of her affections in her teammate – that Fox guy. Were she truly desperate for affection then she would have turned to him rather than me, a boy with whom she'd only shared perhaps half a dozen words.

Not flirting then, maybe she was testing me?

That seemed more likely. Asking me what she thought of her appearance was an odd way to initiate a conversation. Perhaps she wanted to see if I could see through the deception? But why?

Was she scouting me out? Was this encounter planned?

Or… Or maybe I was over-analyzing this and she was just naturally flirtatious.

Too many questions and not enough conclusions. I cleared my mind of the _whys _and _whats_, figuring out CFVY's potential interest in me could be done later. For now, I had a question to answer.

"Your clothes are expensive and custom-made," I started; I knew from living with Weiss that shirts and pants capable of clinging _that _well to a body's contours were not mass produced. "That speaks both of wealth and vanity; the fact that they are so well cared for only leads me to believe that you are _too _vane."

The boy – Fox something-or-other… Oh! Alistair! – bristled again. She calmed him with a small smile and a gesture then turned back to me.

She wanted more then? I could do that – observing was something I was _good _at. Very good, if I was any capable judge of my own ability.

"Wealth, vanity… Confidence," I said slowly, watching her for a reaction and receiving none. The fact that she hadn't broken eye contact but to calm Alistair and the way she was standing… "You're confident in your abilities and your appearance. Others' opinions do not matter to you, not unless you _let _them matter. You know this… You use it to your advantage."

Else how would she have been able to ask me so brazenly about her appearance? She did not care what I thought of it because she _knew _she was attractive – that was the only explanation I could think of.

"Well, well," she drawled, but I cut her off. I was only just getting started.

"But no one is truly confident in who they are. We all have doubts that we've hidden away, demons we aren't ready to face. You have them too. Your confidence is a front, a strong one, but a front all the same."

_Now _she reacted. Before she kept a straight face throughout my observations but now her eyebrows were arched. One of her hands was fiddling with the beads of her necklace. A nervous tick? Maybe.

"You lead team CFVY," I continued and nodded toward Alistair. "They respect you enough to obey you – that's something that comes from affection. Affection is hard to fake; I think the affection you hold for your team is genuine. And theirs for you, as well."

I paused, thinking. Alistair had stopped huffing and puffing, now the boy was just staring, surprise evident on his face for all to see. The large boy in armor was frowning. Adel's sunglasses were now lowered enough that I could see her eyes – a good thing too, because she looked ridiculous wearing them inside – and her hand was no longer fiddling with her necklace.

"You present yourself in a manner that leaves no room to doubt your abilities as a leader. You are everything a good leader should be – poised, confident, affectionate. I cannot speak to your strategic mind but CFVY did not become the second best team in year two by a fluke."

"You've done your research," Adel whispered, staring at me with what I thought was a calculating look on her face.

I shook my head. Everything about her spoke of a model leader, a text book huntress paragon. It was all too… impossible. She was confident, she was affectionate, she was a good strategist. "You are everything a good leader should be. But are you really? Are you a good leader?"

"_I _certainly think so," she drawled. Behind her Alistair and the large boy nodded as well.

"You're good at hiding your faults," I allowed. "I wonder what they are…"

Nobody was perfect, leader or not. Ruby was a good leader, for example, she had a sound tactical mind and cared greatly for her team. At the same time, she was crippled socially and had plenty of doubts about herself due to her age. She could not approach the second years observing our dueling class the same way, say, ERMD's leader could.

Because Eik Verbrand had confidence in spades.

Ruby's faults hurt her team but that was to be expected.

No one was perfect.

No exceptions.

It was because of that knowledge that I was hesitant to believe Coco Adel. She did not pause at all; there was no contemplation, no consideration, no thought put into her answer. It was like she truly believed herself to be a good leader and had no nagging doubts that could make her stop and _think_ about herself before she answered.

'_Every great leader has their doubts; that is what makes them so great. Doubt is what keeps them grounded.'_

Maybe she _knew _that.

My eyebrows arched despite my best efforts to control my expression. If this girl was aware enough to not only know of her faults but also _realize _that those faults were normal for a leader to have…

That was above and beyond _anything_ Ruby was capable of doing. The girl knew she was challenged in the social arena of teenage interaction but she _did not_ realize that faults like that were normal for a teenager, leader or not, to have. Instead of acknowledging her weakness and finding ways around it, the girl let it antagonize her, she let it drag her down.

"I see," I said slowly, the impressed expression fading from my face as my Scroll buzzed; it went ignored. It was probably one of the girls; I promised to eat lunch with them today after the meeting with the headmaster. They would want answers and if I denied them that information then there would hell to pay.

Adel smiled slightly and pushed her glasses back up over her eyes. It was with a new eye that I watched her; a more respectful eye. This girl was _dangerous_. She was self-aware. She could not be manipulated by her faults, like Cardin could with his pride or Jaune with his insecurities. She… she was something else entirely.

She was unpredictable.

"That was more than I expected, Champ. I'm impressed… Now, if you'll humor me, I'd like to do you the same courtesy."

"Uhh," I muttered, hand frozen where it was reaching for my Scroll. "Su-"

"You're not used to having people analyze you," she started. "Otherwise you wouldn't have been surprised that I asked. Honestly, haven't you ever heard that turnabout is fair play?"

A laugh escaped me. That was true, that people usually didn't observe me. At least not that I _knew _of, anyway; I was fairly certain Blake had studied me before – she was similar to me in that she liked to watch people too. I just never caught her doing it_._

"You're quiet. You watch, you listen, and you learn because of it. You're an observer. A handy trait, _sometimes_," she said, pausing. "You don't go out of your way to help people unless you care for them. Some would call that cruel; I call it practical and I think you might as well."

"Lots of observations," I noted, unimpressed; she could have learned all those things simply by watching our dueling classes. "Few conclusions." Because one could observe all day and learn plenty of facts, but it was what the observer _did _with those facts that made the difference. It was the conclusions drawn from them that made them important.

"Patience," she demurred. "Let's return to your habit of observing people… It's a rare quality to have, certainly. Most of our peers act first, without thinking, but you… Where did you get your habit?" She was studying me now, watching my face like a hawk would its prey. "Something like that doesn't just appear overnight. It develops for a reason."

She paused, idly fiddling with her necklace again. "What is your reason? Why do you remove yourself from your peers' conversations?"

I swallowed. She was straying dangerously close to the path that would lead to her finding out more about me than I wanted her to find out. About how I used to observe people as a child to gauge my progress, about how that habit was still with me now, years later.

"Your fingers are tapping your thigh – are you nervous?"

A half-smile grew on her face and I forced myself to stop fidgeting. The truth of it was that this was indeed making me nervous. _Very_ nervous.

"I think so," she continued. "But why? It's not because a beautiful girl is paying you attention – you have an entire team full of cute little girls to play with."

She paused and relief spread through me, I did_ not_ want to keep talking about observing people.

When she remained silent, though, I realized she was watching my expression for a reaction. Why?

Belatedly, I remembered her question… Did she think I had a crush on one of my teammates? That might have been a possibility, were I really just another seventeen year-old student here. One boy on a team of girls? How could he not become infatuated with one of them? Or rather, considering it was a teenaged boy, allof them at once.

The difference between a seventeen year-old boy and myself, however, was that I was not blinded to their faults by their beauty. And they were all beautiful, certainly, but they were all _human_. They had character flaws just as I did and knowing that made me a little more practical in my interactions with my team. Yang's charm lost a lot of its luster when one knew that she snored loud enough to wake the dead, for example. Weiss' porcelain features became a little less desirable when you had to deal with her moodiness at six in the morning.

She was _not_ a morning person.

"Nothing, then," Adel said, disappointment visible on her features for a moment. She schooled her expression back into an emotionless front quickly, though.

"There must be another reason for your nerves, then."

There was.

"I wonder if it's because we out-number you?"

Not really. They could beat me down easily, I was certain, but the commotion that would cause was sure to attract attention.

"No… I wonder, do you _know _of your faults?"

My eye twitched despite my best attempts to stop it and a smile broke out on her face.

"Impressive," she said quietly. "You're nervous because you know of your faults, of what a close study of your character might reveal, and you don't want anyone knowing about them."

Almost true. Again, I was deathly afraid of anyone watching me and finding that I acted a little too old for my age. I was nervous of someone questioning how I knew what I knew of programming, of life in general, when I was only seventeen. I was terrified of someone making conclusions on where my habits came from, on how they developed.

But if she wanted to assume my faults were the only things worth hiding, then I would let her.

"Well," the girl said abruptly, clapping her hands. The serious atmosphere in the hallway faded immediately and I remembered then that her two teammates were present. "I think we've kept you long enough. Your team was looking for you, earlier. Something about lunch, I think?"

With that, she turned and strutted away, her teammates following behind her. The big one gave me a nod, a gesture that I returned absentmindedly.

That was…unexpected. I felt suddenly like I'd just been tested; placed under a microscope and studied.

And, as I watched Coco Adel stroll away from me, I couldn't help but wonder _why_.

* * *

The message on my Scroll ended up being a message from Yang, short and to the point:

"Questions. Lunch. Now."

I closed the message and my thoughts turned from Coco Adel and team CFVY to the subject of their questions even as my feet started to lead me to the dining hall. The Headmaster made good on his scholarship guarantee – I was attending Beacon for no charge; it was the only way I could because the alternative would be bankrupting my family.

That wasn't going to happen.

Because I was attending at the school's expense, he had essentially 'hired' me to write software-quills-apps-_whatever_ for him on the side. I would be modestly reimbursed – not quite as much as an actual developer would but… _scholarship – _for my time and effort. Given that I already had a weekly allowance from Beacon, any reimbursement would be funneled back to my mother and my sister; a sort-of replacement for my job at the grocer.

My first assignment, the first program he asked for, was the subject of my meeting with the man. It was a simple idea in theory but far harder to implement in practice.

Ozpin wanted a way to track where his students were located. Given all of them had a Scroll on them, presumably at all times, it was certainly possible. He had done his research, he knew I would need a signal of some kind by which the devices could be tracked. He supplied that already, the signal was the way Beacon's virtual quill store interacted with Scrolls. He was unaware, however, that I would need… _something_ to emit a signal over a large radius as well. While the Scrolls could send out their signals on whatever frequencies they wanted, without something I could use to _track_ those signals, I would be dead in the water before I even got started.

Unfortunately, Ozpin was unable to provide such a device; instead the man had given me access to the hardware supporting Beacon's wireless network – they called it a _Pigeon Network_ – to implement his software across Beacon's campus. Later, it could be expanded to cover larger areas. Connecting to the wireless network's main terminal – essentially a giant, overly complicated router – would be my first priority. Next I would need to see what kind of information I could get from those Scroll signals as well as the frequency over which they transmitted… Did they have any built in security? Mine was all custom-made…

A grunt escaped my throat as I forced the thoughts from my mind and placed my Scroll back in my pocket. It was a large project, to be certain, but I could think on it later. The dining hall was nearing and I was _hungry_. It took a _long _time to sign the documentation stating I essentially wouldn't abuse my access to Beacon's wireless network; the lion's share of the meeting time was devoted to just that, actually.

I slipped in through the arched doorway and immediately located the girls. Ruby appeared to be over her short bout of depression after her match, she was currently devouring a bowl of strawberry ice cream. Blake, Weiss and Yang were sitting next to her and across from them was team JNPR; they were all speaking animatedly.

Or at least Nora was. That girl had too much energy…

A laugh – Cardin's – drew my attention to the boy in question. I wasn't too happy with Cardin right now. He put me in a difficult situation. He and his team regularly picked on Jaune and given that JNPR sat with RWEBY almost every day at lunch, I was starting to feel obligated to act in the boy's defense. It was infinitely easier for me to remove myself from the situation entirely but interaction with the blond showed me he was-

Was that?

_No._

Having approached, I saw now that Cardin and his team were surrounding a girl. She looked vaguely familiar but I couldn't place her name; I did, however, recognize the appendages on her head that marked her as a faunus. Rabbit ears, to be specific. And Cardin…

The boy was _tugging on her ears_. Worse still, he and his team laughed and jeered as she struggled.

_And no one was doing anything!_

"Hey," I barked, furious and instantly beyond rational thought. All I could think of was Phoebe and what if it was _her_ in this girl's spot and how I would _**ruin**_ anyone that touched-

"The _fuck_ is wrong with you," I spat as I reached them. My hand shot out and grabbed the shocked boy's wrist, twisting it until he yelped and let go of the girl's ear.

_Her ear._

It was twisted and twitching and she winced every time it moved and it could _so easily_ have been Phoebe-

_This __**fuck.**_

I hauled off and punched the boy in the jaw. My Semblance made itself known almost without conscious thought and I staggered when I felt over a third of it leave me.

Still, the satisfaction I felt at seeing Cardin sail across the length of the dining hall made any impending tired feeling get chased away by a combination of exhilaration and vindication. My arm twitched painfully, unused to the massive amount of Aura I just channeled through it, but it went ignored too.

"You three got anything to say," I continued, my voice low. They glanced between each other and myself, their eyes wide. I almost wanted them to try something, I wanted them to give me a reason.

"_Mr. Melkweg_," a voice thundered from my left. I ignored it and kept up my glare; the three boys quickly decided on running as the best course of action. They sprinted out of the hall and left Cardin in a heap against the wall next to the door, where he'd landed.

A strong hand gripped my shoulder and I found myself spun about to face Glenda Goodwitch. Her face was set in a fierce scowl and her brow was furrowed deeply.

"Just _what_ were you _thinking_," she hissed, continuing without waiting for a response. "I expected better from you! Punching a fellow student – _in the middle of the dining hall!_ Unacceptable!"

"Uh, Professor Goodwitch," Ruby said, hesitant from where she sat. "Cardin-"

"_Not now_, Miss Rose," the huntress said before she spun back around to face me. "_You_ will be coming with me."

She stormed past me without another word and I chanced a glance at my team.

They were all worried or concerned, I could see that easily in the way Blake's knuckles were white around her book and the way Ruby was wringing her hands.

I gave the younger girl a wink and tried to summon up a smile for her but failed. Still fuming, I turned to follow Goodwitch, only belatedly remembering the faunus girl.

"If he bothers you again," I started, even as the professor behind me called for me, unamused at my delay. "Find me."

Her eyes, still widened in surprise after the punch I'd given Cardin, narrowed slightly as her brow furrowed. I didn't have enough time to study her expression so I didn't know how she took my offer.

'_Oh well, nothing I can do now anyway.'_

* * *

_That evening_

A week's worth of detention ended up being the price I paid for smacking Cardin across the dining hall. The boy himself got a slap on the wrist, as did his team.

I was annoyed when the punishments were being doled out, feeling it was unfair to go so easy on the bully. Later though, when I was walking off my anger around the campus and more level headed, I realized that it was quite fair. Cardin and his team were bullying the girl, something that was wrong. Certainly. It was not, however, a dire enough offense that it warranted a punch on the chin strong enough to land him in the medical room.

In retrospect, _I _was probably the one that got off easy.

That was six hours ago; it was late in the evening now and my stomach was growling. A quick stop in the dining hall left me full and thankfully alone – I wasn't quite ready to talk to anyone yet. I knew they would want to know about the Cardin incident and that was the last thing I wanted on my mind. At the same time, I knew the girls would want to know what happened. It was getting late anyway, now… might as well deal with their questions sooner, rather than later.

That in mind I headed back to our shared dorm and caught Ruby in the midst of pacing back and forth across the width of the room.

"-be expelled! Or he might be lost or," she was saying before turned to face me so fast I thought she'd given herself whiplash.

"_You,_" she yelled, stamping her feet and pointing a finger at my face. She started stalking over. "Where have you been?!"

"I-"

"Do you even know how worried we were," she continued, ignoring me and pressing her finger into my chest. My back hit the now-closed door with a muted _thud_.

"Worr-"

"We haven't seen you since _lunch!_"

"Ru-"

"You didn't even return our _Scroll messages!_"

"But-"

She grabbed my collar. "What do you have to say for yourself?! Huh?"

Her voice sounded thicker than usual. A glance at her eyes showed me that they were shining.

'_Oh shit.'_

It honestly hadn't occurred to me that they would be worried. Turning off my Scroll had been a careless action to avoid contact with all other human beings while I walked off some of my anger. I never thought of telling the rest of the team where I went or what I was doing because they fell under that 'all other human beings' category.

"I… didn't think-"

"You're right you didn't think," Ruby yelled, punching my chest. Then, she hugged me and started sobbing into my shoulder.

My arms wrapped around her without any conscious thought to the action and I glanced at the other three occupants of the room. Weiss and Blake looked just as surprised as I felt at Ruby's outburst. They were both staring, wide eyed and shameless. Yang, on the other hand… Yang didn't look too pleased with me. I could understand that completely – if someone made Phoebe cry then I wouldn't be pleased with them either.

'_Damnit.'_

If I knew this was what would follow the incident, I never would have punched Cardin in the first place.

'_Stupid thing to do anyway. I reacted like an angry child throwing a tantrum.'_

Well, I dug my grave. Now it was time I lay in it.

First: Ruby.

"I'm sorry," I said softly, resting my head atop hers. Was she always so short? "I honestly didn't think you would worry."

"Stupid," she muttered into my shoulder, sniffing. "Stupid… 'course I'd worry."

Yeah, I guess I was pretty stupid. Dealing with people, teenagers in particular, was harder than I remembered. Then again, I was never on a team where trust issues meant the difference between life and death in my old life either.

I was wading out into new waters, then. _That _was a scary thought. The relationships I built with this team decided if I would live or die out in the field and I had _no experience_ to help me through it.

"I went for a walk, to clear my head," I continued, mostly to rid myself of the intimidating thoughts. "I was kind of angry earlier."

Weiss snorted and Blake gave me an unimpressed look. Ruby started giggling, of all things, in my arms.

I threw a confused look at Yang but she only looked exasperated at this point and- _OW!_

My head was thrown backward when Ruby decided she'd had enough of being hugged. The girl jerked back and slammed her head into my chin.

I stumbled back, legitimately dazed and maybe hamming it up _a little bit_ because they were laughing and laughing was _so_ much better than crying.

"Sorry," our leader blurted from behind her hands. She looked absolutely delighted now and I hoped it wasn't because she just about made me bite through my tongue.

"You broke _his jaw!" _A torrent of giggles escaped her. "He was like 'huh?' and you were like 'POW!' and he was like 'EEEEEK' and _it was awesome!_

"He's a meanie," she finished with a firm nod.

I snorted and a dumbfounded grin started to grow on my face. Behind Ruby, I saw Blake start to smile – she was fighting it but it was an uphill battle.

"He did squeal like a pig," Yang confirmed, staring off into the distance.

There was a short moment of silence and then Ruby giggled again, trying to stifle it behind her hands.

"He was all 'NoooOOoOOoooo'," she yelled as she spun around in circles toward the dorm wall. She collapsed against it. "And then 'POWIE!'. Out like a light!"

"Ugh," Weiss scoffed, turning up her nose at the display. "You are so childish."

The grin dropped off my face and the room's atmosphere plummeted. I wondered what made Weiss so hostile so suddenly. She was a nice girl, I knew that from the talks I'd shared with her, maybe a little difficult-

Why was she climbing atop Ruby's bed-

"He sounded more like this," the girl stated, crouching.

She jumped-

"Glass jaaaaaaaaaw!"

A laugh burst out of me. I laughed harder, completely uncontrolled as Ruby, Blake and Yang joined in. Even Weiss, lying on the floor, was laughing hard enough to clutch at her sides. The only coherent thought I could summon up was that _maybe_ punching Cardin was a good idea after all.

* * *

Malamig Ink – Scroll OS [Version 3.4.235] © Malamig United. All rights reserved.

Initializing….

Welcome, MelkwegE….

C:\Users\MelkwegE: **vim z:\classMateNotes\secondYear\ONGE\VinoN;**

…Opening file "VinoN"…

_Naranka Vino. Team ONGE: Second year student, member of team ONGE. He is obedient to his leader to a fault – was told to watch the first dueling class for RWEBY's year and report back on potential mentorship targets. ONGE is in the upper half of year two for team rankings. Weapon unknown. Skills unknown. Unique characteristics: bright orange hair._

wq!

Writing file….

Quitting….

C:\Users\MelkwegE: **vim z:\classMateNotes\thirdYear\MCRY\FudanM;**

…Opening file "FudanM"…

_Melnach Fudan. Team MCRY: Leader of team MCRY. His team is at the bottom of year three. Attended the first dueling class. Weapon unknown. Skills unknown._

wq!

Writing file….

Quitting….

C:\Users\MelkwegE: **vim z:\classMateNotes\firstYear\SAFR\WasserR;**

…Opening file "WasserR"…

_Regen Wasser. Team SAFR: Fights with a hooked halberd. The boy is cunning and intelligent, able to use the hook on the weapon to disrupt Ruby's fighting style. Appears physically strong. Worth watching. Unique characteristics: dark blue hair._

wq!

Writing file….

Quitting….

C:\Users\MelkwegE: **logout –f;**

Closing session….

Good bye, MelkwegE….

* * *

_**AN:**_Long time, no see! The move thankfully went pretty smoothly…now I just have an apartment full of boxes to unpack. Hopefully that'll get done sometime late summer…

(01/12/2016) Revised. And, as an extra note, I still need to unpack those boxes.

So we got to meet team CFVY – I hope all of you enjoyed my interpretation of Coco. With so little detailed about the upper years in the show thus far, I'm going to be working from my imagination more and more often from here on out.

woefulAdjudicator: It wasn't my intention to have RWEBY come across quite so strong… they _are _strong, but certainly not unbeatable. I changed around my wording in the last chapter to – hopefully – better reflect that. I appreciate the feedback! It keeps helps keep me honest!

Ventusblade: First off, let me say thank you. I know it's a petty thing to care about but seeing bigger numbers on my story assures me that the effort I put into it is worth it. I'd never heard of Ryen before you mentioned him, so Aegis wasn't based off of his weapon… it _is _based off of a shield but it's sort of grown into its own monster since I first thought of it! I like the Odin idea…

.9847: You don't know how close you are with one of your suggestions… There's more to Enten's Semblance than meets the eye!

Again, thank you all for reading! Let me know what you think!

-Phailen


	8. Chapter 8

_One week later, Week 4_

We went on a field trip the following Monday.

Normally I'd be ecstatic at missing class for the day but given we were going to the Forever Fall Forest, a lot of my excitement was taken from me. It wasn't that I was hiding from it, I was done mourning and had been for some time now, but it was hard to disassociate the place where three of my parents were killed with the negative emotions those deaths wrought upon my psyche.

In the end, I was left with a very neutral outlook on the entire venture. Happy that I could miss class without Ruby nagging me to go and Blake staring me down. But at the same time, sad that I would be visiting what was essentially the graves of three loved ones.

They could put as many gravestones in graveyards as they wanted. For me, their _real _graves would always be where the Grimm left them.

_Specks of blood everywhere, flung off its hide by the momentum of its spin…_

It took me a moment to collect myself but once I was done, a neutral look was present on my face and it was there to stay. A 'public face' as Weiss called them.

Where I was melancholic about the entire venture, my team was the exact opposite. Ruby and Weiss had never been and Yang only ever saw it from my house. I thought it was Blake's first visit too but given her complete lack of reaction – because she _usually_ expressed herself with at least movement of her eyebrows – I could tell this scenery was not new to her. Maybe she grew up here?

"Woah," Ruby cooed as the red, flowering trees came into view. Given the girl's favorite color was red, I imagined she fell in love with the forest the instant she saw it. Beside her, Yang took in the environment in a decidedly calmer manner but an impressed look was on her face all the same. Weiss, I thought, was tracking the birds as they skirted through the trees, a soft smile on her face. Given she used to bird-watch when she was younger, I imagined she found the Forever Fall Forest pleasant too.

The trees looked foreboding to me but I knew I was biased. The gentle sway of their branches and the rustling of their leaves were only there to hide the sounds of animalistic growls and roars. The trunks of the beautiful trees grew closer together not to present the image of an endless sea of red flower blossoms but to hide the glowing red eyes of the beasts that called this place their home. The canopy's shade was not a refuge from the sun but the den of monsters.

I felt someone bump my shoulder; a good thing too, it was only as I withdrew from my thoughts that I realized they were incredibly depressing.

"Pretty, huh," Blake said, still utterly neutral compared to the rest of the team. It only made me more certain that she either grew up here or spent a significant amount of time among the red-blossoming trees.

"My family lives just outside the forest," I commented after a beat, reflexively nodding my head in response to her question. The trees _were_ pretty, as were the blossoms they never seemed to stop shedding.

Cardin, behind us, mockingly imitated me. He grew antagonistic toward me after I punched him for bullying Velvet Scarlatina – the rabbit faunus who just so happened to be part of team CFVY. It was annoying but thus far all he'd done was mock me and expect me to react to it.

I ignored him easily, just as I did all the other times he imitated me. The bully wasn't an adult. He didn't have any world experience and the reason he bullied others was likely just as immature as he was. I did not have the time nor did I have the patience to humor him. Suddenly, I felt a little better about today's field trip – especially because it was technically considered a class and so my punishment didn't exclude me from going.

Goodwitch jumped me with that information this morning, how part of my punishment was being excluded from any extracurricular clubs and activities. Personally, I was certain she just needled that extra bit out of the headmaster – she did not look pleased with my punishment when I left Ozpin's office last Friday.

"Oh," Blake said, expressing interest in the way her eyes widened ever so slightly. The girl was hard for me to read, even now, after a month's worth of interaction with her. This was the first time today I saw any sort of emotion on her face and it struck me then, how similar the two of us were acting in our withdrawal – perhaps her memories of this forest were dreary too. "Nearby?"

"Yeah, we…" I stopped, considering that Cardin was just behind us and very much a child, I didn't want him privy to any additional information about mom and Phoebe. He was immature enough to try something and I definitely gave him a reason. Going after me was one thing, but my _family?_

We would have _problems._

"We used to visit the forest often," I continued, winking at Blake and making a point of darting my eyes back to where Cardin and his team were walking.

She smiled mutely amid a strong breeze that stirred the forest around us. It put me on edge despite the clear lack of Grimm and the presence of my classmates.

"Your attention, please," Goodwitch said over the dying noise of the forest. She informed us that we would need to fill a jar with sap by the day's end, at four in the afternoon. Advice to stick together was also thrown into the mix, given the Grimm presence in the forest.

'_Grimm? I hadn't noticed.'_

She dismissed us then and the first year teams went their separate ways. Team CRDL and Jaune wandered off with the rest of the teams while RWEBY and the remains of JNPR stood around, relaxing and talking amongst ourselves.

I found it odd that Jaune and Cardin were suddenly best friends. I knew there was some amount of bullying involved when I saw the blond boy carrying all of team CRDL's supplies for the field trip. Maybe it was something more, though, something serious enough to make JNPR's leader abandon his team entirely. An intra-team argument?

I glanced at Ruby then and found her frowning in the direction Jaune and CRDL disappeared. I was lucky to have her as a leader – were the Arc boy my leader I wasn't sure I what I would do. Maybe I was being unfair but anyone in charge of lives should have a spine; they should have the mental maturity to identify a bad situation and take steps to correct it _before _it tore their team apart.

I felt sorry for team JNPR.

"Jaune knows perfectly well what he's doing," Pyrrha Nikos, JNPR's P, was saying. Her voice served to draw me from my thoughts and immediately I noticed that the normally unflappable girl looked incredibly annoyed. That opinion was only reinforced when she stalked off into the forest, leaving Ren and Nora to awkwardly trail after her.

_Very _lucky Ruby was my leader.

"Huh," I grunted when they slipped out of sight a few seconds later. It was an awkward silence that RWEBY was left in and I was determined to break it. Let JNPR deal with their own issues, I wasn't about to let RWEBY be dragged down with them despite my teammates' general willingness to help. That was a poisonous situation that we didn't need to have anything to do with. "So, my family lives on the edge of the forest and I know where a bunch of trees that make that red sap are…"

Ruby looked a little too concerned for my liking; call me a terrible person but I did not want to spend the field trip in a dangerous forest with only a troubled team as company. And that was definitely what she would have suggested. Better to figuratively and literally remove ourselves from the situation. Plus, the farther away I was from a relatively unsupervised Cardin, the better. Dealing with the boy's grudge in this state of mind, strung out due to this damnable forest as I was, might lead to another over-the-top reaction.

Ruby gasped, drawing me from my thoughts. Her forlorn expression morphed into an excited smile in an instant. "Can we meet your sister?"

I checked my Scroll. "It's still early in the morning," I said as I traipsed off in the direction of the faunus community. Ruby followed me closely while Yang, Blake and Weiss trailed after us, a few steps behind. "We can get the sap and have lunch with my family?"

Ruby cheered while Yang nodded, saying: "Sure, it's been a while since I've seen that little squirt. I owe her a game of hide and seek!"

"You've met her," Ruby accused, whirling to face her sister. "When?"

"Remember those martial arts lessons on the mainland when you were 'super-ultra busy' with Signal classes?"

"Yes," the younger girl pouted, her shoulders drooping. It made my lips quirk into a small smile – pouting was something little sisters knew instinctively, I thought.

"No worries, Ruby. Phoebe knows all about you and team RWEBY. She _really_ wants to meet you." And it was true. Once my little sister heard that my team leader was a girl two years my junior, she demanded I tell her how Ruby had gotten into Beacon early. Ever since then my correspondence with home was littered with questions about my leader and, to a lesser extent, the other girls on RWEBY. I was impressed with her; it took a lot of courage to chase your dreams and Phoebe was doing just that. She even confided in me that she was trying to 'sit really still and be really quiet' so she could find her Aura.

"She called you super strong and a genius when I told her you got into Beacon early."

Ruby flushed and looked away, uncomfortable. Whether it was because she couldn't take compliments or she was still uncertain about being team RWEBY's leader, I did not know. I hoped it wasn't the second one, she was a good leader and with peers like Jaune and I-don't-need-my-team-to-fight Cardin, she should know that.

"You _are_ a good leader you know. Ozpin was right in choosing-"

"Okayokayokay!" She was positively glowing with her blush now and I laughed, falling back and leaving the girl to her sister's teasing remarks.

I saw a flash of red in my peripheral, an object the same size as an eerily glowing eye, and I almost expanded Aegis. As I was bringing my arm up, though, I saw that it was only a falling rose petal.

I sighed and tried to calm my racing heart. Being in this forest was taxing to the extreme. The only place I was comfortable with in here was my clearing; the one I would practice in regularly. The one I laid as many primitive traps around as I could. The one I knew like the back of my hand.

"You're jumpy today," Weiss' voice said from my side and I almost flinched.

"Really jumpy," she amended, prompting a sardonic laugh from me.

"It's not easy being back here. There are very few places in this forest where I can let my guard down." I paused, taking a moment to survey my surroundings. Ruby, Yang and Blake were ahead of Weiss and I. All around us, as far as I could see, were red, flowering trees. The trunks were still very close together and I knew that meant we were pretty deep in the forest. It would be an hour or two before we reached my clearing. Birds chirping off in the distance caught my ear then – that was a good sign, a sign that nothing bigger and _badder _had disturbed them.

I let the tension fade from my shoulders completely. We were safe, for the timing being. I knew there was nothing different about the Grimm in this forest versus the Grimm in the Emerald Forest, but my memories made them seem more menacing, more dangerous.

"How do you deal with it," Weiss' voice came from around my shoulder.

This time, I did jump.

"Ah," I stuttered, forcing myself to breathe slower until I was suitably calm enough to answer. "I, well…" A laugh forced itself out of me. "I don't deal with it well, apparently. This is the first time I've been this deep in the forest in a long, long time."

The girl hummed. "You're nervous," she allowed. "But you aren't scared. At least I don't think so…" She paused, eyes scanning the forest. "Do you… What do you see when you look around?"

"Bushes to hide in," I said immediately. The underbrush of the forest, while not as consistent as the Emerald Forest, was tall enough to easily hide a Boarbatusk. I knew that from experience. "Trees that block your vision and reduce your awareness. Huh, you know, Nevermores must find it laughably simple to ambush people here."

"I… That's dark," Weiss replied and I looked over to find a contemplative expression upon her porcelain features. "I think I understand."

"Oh," I said, my eyebrows arched. My description of the forest, brief though it was, should have prompted unease or confusion from the girl. Most people would see this place as a thing of beauty. Something innocent and pretty.

The Forever Fall Forest was dangerously deceptive like that.

The Schnee heiress hummed again and nodded, drawing me back to the conversation at hand.

"I…" She paused, frowning. "It's not really a specific place, but… in places with larger populations of… of, uh."

"Faunus," I supplied.

"Yes," she said quickly. "But I don't hate them, I don't hate your family. I don't want you to think I'm some kind of horrible bigot or anyt-"

"Weiss, _Weiss_," I said, holding up one of my hands. The girl's mouth moved uncertainly but she held her tongue. "I know you don't hate faunus outright. I know why you're wary of them. I know what your family's opinions and your company's name have done to you. You don't have to explain yourself."

"Yes, well," she continued after a moment's pause, clearing her throat when words failed her. "My original point was that I understand. Areas with high populations of faunus do the same thing to me… They… they color my perception."

That was news to me. If I knew that then I might have been more reluctant to invite the girls over for lunch. I was certain my mother would not mind but if Weiss was going to be that uncomfortable then she might miss out on the experience I hoped she would enjoy – an introduction to faunus that weren't out to get her. There might be a few exceptions in my community, people with extreme views, but they were so few and far between that I very much doubted we would see any of them. _Especially_ given it was approaching noon on a workday.

"You'll have your team with you," I said, only belatedly realizing that my team's presence wasn't helping me with the Forever Fall Forest so it probably wouldn't help Weiss with the faunus community.

She frowned and so did I. I didn't know what could help her; I didn't know what could help me either.

If only I could give her my knowledge of these faunus, somehow. Of old Melanie and her dogs. Of Lucia Grebble and her way with words.

"The memories never fade, but the pain will, given time," I muttered. And maybe that was the answer? Maybe Weiss and I just needed time.

"What?"

"Time," I repeated, glancing over at the girl. "Maybe we just need time."

She laughed behind her hand. "I guess I'll never get over it then – spending time around people who want to kill me sounds horrible!"

It was the easy way out – avoiding the problem rather than confronting it – but it was appealing in its simplicity. In its easiness.

I grinned wryly. "We'll be two misfits then, I'll be avoiding the Forever Fall Forest too."

My clearing notwithstanding, of course.

* * *

"Watch the wire," I said, pointing to the thin, almost invisible, cord stretching across the path in front of me.

"Wow," Yang chirped. I stepped over the trap as I continued on my way to the clearing. "Got a nasty secret hidden here, partner? Anything you want to let me and Blake in on?"

"Yeah, I'm actually from another dimension with memories of a past life. You know, the usual. This is where I hide all my cool other-life stuff."

She laughed and I thought I heard Weiss scoff; a grin formed on my face as we reached my clearing. With every step I took, I could feel the pressure on my shoulders abating. The Forever Fall Forest grew farther and farther away and my clearing – safety – took its place.

"Here we are," I crowed half a minute later, throwing out my arms and spinning to face the girls as we entered the clearing. The trees were just as covered with sap as I remembered and I could actually see the sun now.

There were no trees in my clearing. All of them were now wedged between the plant-life that bordered it. It was a crude wall made up of haphazardly placed tree trunks, but it worked against the Grimm. I took very special care to make sure there were no gaps large enough for even a Boarbatusk to fit through. Most of them – the trees around the edge of the clearing – were marked in some way as well. Their bark broken or branches snapped. Some, just within the clearing's borders, were toppled completely and one had been uprooted entirely. It was currently laying on its side, roots and all, near the edge of the clearing.

I went to one of the trees making up my wall and started to fill my jar. I would give this one to my family and refill it on my way back.

"So is this where you practiced with your Aura," Yang said, coming to stand by another tree nearby.

"Yeah, back when I was still trying to keep it a secret."

"You kept it a secret?" That was Blake, on the blonde's other side. Weiss and Ruby were on the opposite side of the clearing – in the direction of the faunus community and, ironically enough, near my escape path. It was a small gap, hard to see and small enough that I had to move through sideways, and I doubted either girl had seen it.

I nodded. "I was afraid I was too advanced for my age and that it would cause trouble for my parents."

It was only belatedly that I realized how dangerous the waters I was treading were. We were coming close to the actual reason I was able to discover my Aura at age three. Or was it four?

Yang laughed. "Aren't kids usually supposed to be super excited about being better at something? How old were you? Ten? Eleven?"

I stayed silent, cursing myself for getting into this situation in the first place. But I could… yes, that could work.

I glanced over at them, finding two pairs of eyes watching me, waiting for an answer. "I was four."

Yang mouthed my answer back at me even as Blake's eyebrows shot up. "Four?"

"It was when my parents died," I elaborated.

A frown grew on the blonde's face. "Oh. That- I see… I wouldn't want to tell anyone about-," she made a gesture at the clearing in general, "about all of _this_ either."

"It looks like a warzone," Blake commented from behind her as she capped her jar, now full of sap.

"Sounds like you're jealous." I laughed when she threw me a look that promised pain. It was one I was more familiar with seeing on Yang's face, especially given how often we practiced martial arts together. After the very first session I attended, the girl declared me her permanent partner. No one complained, apparently she beat all the other students handily. To have someone who could keep up with her - eventually, those first few weeks were painful – must have been a blessing to them.

I grinned at the two of them and, feeling a bit ridiculous, threw some of my Aura at Yang's feet, nothing too big but it was enough to throw her off balance. Enough for me to hit her with a handful of sap.

Right in the… hair.

'_Well, time for me to go.'_

Knowing what was coming, I took off across the clearing before the girl got over her surprise. Blake broke into laughter that she tried, and failed, to stifle behind her fist.

I reached Ruby and Weiss in short order. Quickly, I darted around them.

"Hey!"

"Time to go," I called back, leaving them standing in my wake. They had surprised expressions on their faces until Yang shot past them and I was forced to look ahead, lest I trip and the girl catch me.

"Get back here!"

I slipped behind the gap in the tree wall, only just making it by and scraping some bark off of a tree in the process.

"Never," I called back as I scooped another handful of sap out of my jar. I turned in mid-air and tossed it at the girl as she was emerging from the clearing; an answering shriek when I turned around assured me that I hit _something_. A laugh escaped me as I ran, fueled by the laughter of the three girls following Yang. Even the blonde was grinning in a way that let me know she wasn't taking any of this personally. There would still most certainly be hell to pay, though.

I screwed the cap back on my jar when I cleared the tree line and entered the faunus community. The cluster of houses that I grew up with was in front of me and mine was three deep. It was comforting to see the wood-and-brick structures again. I'd have to spend some time admiring them later, when I wasn't being chased.

"Hey Mel," I called when I saw the old woman on her porch of her house. Hers was closest to the forest's edge.

She smiled and waved while her dogs yipped and barked excitedly. They were leashed, but they still ran with me for as long as they could.

Another house passed in a blur and suddenly I was at mine. I stopped, breathless and _happy_ and then Yang jumped on my back. She was breathing hard too and giggling in a way I'd never heard her laugh before.

I collapsed and she rolled off of me, we lay on our backs panting until the rest of team RWEBY caught up to us. Blake and Weiss both looked oddly frazzled for some reason. The latter had her fear of the faunus and I felt a little guilty that I essentially left the girl on her own when she was traveling through the village. Blake, though… I wasn't sure.

"Here," Ruby said between gasps as she approached. "Take your stupid jar!"

Yang grinned and accepted the item just as I heard the back door slam open and a voice that could only belong to Phoebe call my name.

I sat up just in time for the girl to collide with my back. Thankfully her head missed mine.

"You're back! Why are you here?" She gasped. "Did you get kicked out!?"

She was yelling into my ear so I reached over my shoulder and grabbed her by the shirt. I pulled her, still talking, over my shoulder and into my lap. She spun to face me.

"-couldn't have gotten kicked out! You're awesome!" She took a breath and gasped. "_IS THIS YOUR TEAM!? Is this RUBY!?"_

"No," I said, grinning. She was pointing at Weiss. "That's-"

"_Is this?!"_

I laughed and directed her pointing hand to our leader instead of having her go down the line – Ruby was last. She was also currently blushing to the roots of her hair and, oddly enough, _covered _in rose petals. It looked like she had taken a bath in them or something.

Phoebe was just about ready to launch herself at the girl when my mother decided to announce her presence from the patio.

"Phoebe, don't point. That's rude."

"Sorry momma," the girl muttered, wide-eyed now and properly contrite. And, because mother was watching, she turned to me and asked in a not-so-quiet whisper: "Can you introduce me?"

"Very outgoing," I heard Blake mutter to Weiss, surprised.

'_You don't even know the half of it_.'

* * *

_Later that day_

We ended up staying for lunch as I mentioned.

Phoebe calmed down – eventually. She still spent an extraordinary amount of time pestering Ruby while Yang looked on with an oddly pleased expression. Weiss got along well with the girl, just as Yang did, but Ruby and Blake were awkward around her. They couldn't seem to decide whether to treat her like a child or a peer – it reminded me of myself around children, before Phoebe came along and I found myself interacting with all of her friends.

Mom and Phoebe ended up getting five jars of sap too. They were touched when Blake offered and pleasantly – or ecstatically, in Phoebe's case – surprised when the rest of team RWEBY followed.

"They're nice," Weiss said, drawing me from my thoughts. We were walking back to meet up with the rest of the class now, five freshly refilled jars of sap in hand.

"I'm glad you think so," I said slowly, mostly unsure of how to respond. The girl hadn't said a word since we left my family's place, maybe she just wanted to speak with me alone? Ruby, Yang and Blake were out of ear shot now – I must have slowed down while my mind wandered.

Weiss went quiet for some time then and I was content to let the silence linger. The quieter we were, the easier it was for me to keep an ear on the denizens of the forest.

"Can we go back sometime?"

My eyebrows rose and I shot the girl a surprised look. Of all the things I expected of her first meeting with faunus, wanting to return was not one of them. Still, it was a pleasant surprise and I felt pride well up in me, for both Weiss and my family.

"I… I want to meet more," she said, quietly, sneaking a glance at the other three members of our team. "It's, I never expected them to be so… _normal_."

I laughed, surprised. "You know," I said, throwing her a wry look. "I should be offended by that."

"Well, how would you feel if you grew up thinking faunus were criminals and vagabonds? That was all I ever heard! If you were in my shoes, how would you feel?" She was frowning now and I thought I recognized a defensive posture in her gait. Still, I considered the question.

"I don't know," I said honestly. And I didn't.

I grew up with an adult's intellect. An intellect that was able to see past the bias and discrimination and realize that there just _might _be more to the faunus than the adult humans said. Weiss did not have that luxury. The hostility toward faunus was more pronounced for her too, given she was heiress of a company that was rumored to use faunus labor and often became targets because of it. How would she have known any better? What reason would she have to suspect a bias?

"I don't know," I reiterated when she stayed quiet. "I didn't grow up around that bias, Weiss."

"Lucky," she muttered and it hit me then, just how _lost_ she looked.

"Hey," I said gently, placing my hand on her shoulder. "You gonna be alright?"

She glanced at me and tried to summon up a smile. "Yes, I'll be fine. Just… just wondering what my life would be like if I wasn't a Schnee."

"Different," I stated, probably unnecessarily. "But I like you just the way you are."

"Thank you," she said, her tone dry. Her eyes darted up to our three teammates again, judging their distance, most like. "It wasn't easy… growing up as heiress."

She looked unsure, like my reaction was an unknown that she was ready to guard against. Given the fact that my life was anything but easy thus far, she probably thought I wouldn't take her seriously. And she was almost right. She grew up receiving everything she ever could have wanted and I only just managed to remind myself that with that privilege came the Schnee name and animosity of the faunus.

"I think we all had hard lives, Weiss." That was fair enough. "Ruby and Yang lost their mothers, Blake doesn't have any family that I know of. You grew up an heiress with the pressure of an entire company on your shoulders."

"And you saw Grimm kill three of your parents," she said quietly.

I exhaled heavily and nodded. It never crossed my mind before now, but the members of team RWEBY did not have glamorous lives growing up. Between the lot of us, Ruby and Yang were _probably_ best off and that was only because they had an uncle and a father that – presumably – cared greatly for them. Never mind the fact that said father taught full time; who knew how much time was left for two children when the work day ended.

"We're a sorry bunch of loners, huh," I said dryly.

"Were. We _were_ a sorry bunch of loners," she said, nodding. "_Now_ we're team RWEBY and even though we aren't all popular," she continued, throwing a glance at Ruby's back. "I still want to be the best team Beacon has ever seen!"

A smile grew on my face. The sarcasm might have gone over her head – team RWEBY was awesome, no doubt about it – but the genuine tone in her voice made me withhold any teasing remarks.

"Damn right," I agreed. "We-"

"Mr. Melkweg," Goodwitch's voice cut across my own. "I will not have you using such _coarse _language! Do you want your punishment to worsen?"

"No," I grunted, turning to face the woman. She was walking toward us with the rest of the first year teams, CRDL and JNPR among them.

She nodded resolutely. "Good. Now, let us return to the Academy – we are supposed to be back for the evening meal and I will not tolerate tardiness!"

It struck me again, the way she spoke and how easily it could grate on my nerves. She enunciated every syllable of every word. Like she was afraid of mispronouncing even the smallest conjunction. It also made her pause between lengthier words.

"Tol-er-ate," I whispered furiously, pausing noticeably before I finished with a flourish on the 's': "_Tar. Di. Ness!"_

Weiss snorted – a sound I delighted in forcing from her only because she looked mortified that she'd made it – and Ruby giggled.

"Lang-gu-w_au_ge," the younger girl slurred, her voice carrying a pompous air. "Pun-ish-men_t_ to wor-se_n!_"

I snickered even as Yang took a turn at imitating Goodwitch. JNPR fell into step with us and I distanced myself from the crowd – the look on Nora's face told me that our professor would soon overhear.

It was then that I noticed Jaune wasn't with them. I glanced around-

He was covered in sap.

He was also walking behind with team CRDL…_still_. Cardin looked pretty roughed up and all around displeased but the second bit wasn't anything new. The rest of his team looked tired and disheveled. None of them had any sap on them though.

Even Jaune himself looked like he'd been put through a wringer.

A glance ahead of me – Nora was starting to imitate Goodwitch now – told me that the rest of team JNPR still looked as pristine as they did at the beginning of the field trip.

'_What happened to Jaune and CRDL?'_

"Jaune," I called, more curious than anything. "What happened?"

The boy jumped, startled out of his dejected shuffle. "Uh, no-nothing! Everything's fine!"

'_Right…'_

I frowned, ready to drop it, but suddenly Ruby and Pyrrha were next to me.

"You're covered in sap," my leader exclaimed in surprise even as I heard Goodwitch start to lay into the rest of RWEBY and JNPR behind me. Looks like they'd finally been found out.

"It was an accident," the blond said and the jeering laugh that Cardin let loose – despite his apparent exhaustion – told me otherwise.

Pyrrha huffed next to me but stayed silent. A glance toward Ruby told me the girl was frowning, probably at Cardin.

"Come on, Jaune," Ruby said solemnly, offering the boy her hand. "Walk with us. With _JNPR_."

The boy immediately looked downtrodden and before he could speak, Cardin stepped forward and roughly threw his arm over the boy's shoulder, staggering the smaller blond. "Jauney-boy is gonna walk with his _friends_," the boy scoffed. "Ain't that right, _buddy_?"

A frown grew on my face. I _wanted _to help; I wanted to help Jaune out of this hole he dug himself into because I wasn't a complete and utter asshole. But at the same time, I could not let my emotional mind dictate my actions; it did not make any sense for me to involve myself in this. It was Jaune and JNPR's problem, not mine.

"Didn't see you in the forest," Cardin threw at me as he brushed by us, followed by his team and Jaune.

My frown grew deeper and I grabbed Ruby's shoulder to keep the girl from starting something. The comment indicated that the bully searched for us, for _me,_ rather. I was pretty sure I knew why – revenge for that punch – but there was nothing I could do about it now. The only saving grace in the situation was that he was unable to find me – a good thing considering I was at home. The last thing I wanted Cardin to know was where my family lived.

"Ohhh, _that guy_," Ruby said and it _almost_ sounded like a growl.

"There's nothing we can do," I said quietly. "Not right now, Jaune's made his choice."

She frowned and Pyrrha stormed off to join Ren and Nora.

Ruby watched her go; a forlorn look on her face. "Even after our conversation," she muttered, upset. "I thought he would put his team _first_!"

I said nothing and only nudged the girl to get her moving again. It had been a long day and the forest really took it out of me. A nap sounded like exactly the right amount of amazing – didn't that make me feel old.

I sighed, glancing at Ruby and flicking a rose petal from her shoulder. "_How_ did you get so many of those on you?"

"Uhhh," she muttered, looking anywhere but me. "Yang did it?"

* * *

**A/N:** You know this was originally supposed to be the second half of chapter six? Everywhere I turn, there's more character development to do! This time it was Weiss and her fear of the faunus.

Oh well, a solid foundation makes for more interesting/reliable characters later!

(01/12/2016) Revised.

Now some quick review responses:

**Brainthief: **I appreciate the feedback, sometimes I get ahead of myself with the scene descriptions and overlook finer details like that. I decided I'd make more of an effort to describe unique things while leaving the more mundane places a little bland. (I think we all have a picture of what a bathroom looks like in our heads, for example, no need to describe it unless it's unique somehow!)

**trninjakiller**: I can see where you're coming from but he had no prior experience with Grimm and hadn't fought a Nevermore either. An oversight on his part, thankfully not _too _costly!

To my other reviewers – thank you for taking the time to leave me a note! It helps me to know people enjoy what I write, when I'm writing it.

Now, before I go, I have a bit of a surprise for the lot of you. Next chapter is going to be different: it will be from **Ruby's PoV**. Here's a preview:

* * *

_Oh._ A clearing. Wow.

It was more like a battlefield than a clearing. Toppled trees were _everywhere_ which meant rose petals were _everywhere_ which meant the ground was like a _sea _of _**rose petals**_!

I immediately dove into the nearest pile because _awesome_ and spent a minute trying to make a rose petal angel.

"Ugh," a familiar voice scoffed to my left. "Can't you _try _to keep yourself clean before we meet Enten's family?"

I groaned and withdrew myself from the heavenly embrace of rose flesh. "Weeeeiss. I'm _fine!_ Roses are flowers. Flowers are pretty. Therefore, I'm pretty because roses."

It made sense and the way the girl's face flushed while she spluttered only confirmed my victory.

_Ruby: 1 Weiss: 0_

* * *

Leave me a note, follow, favorite and what have you!

Till next time.

-Phailen


	9. Chapter 9

_Week 4 – Monday, Forever Fall Forest – Ruby Rose_

I adored the color red; it was by far the best of them all despite what Yang and Enten thought. They just didn't understand but I didn't hold that against them because how could they?

My elder sister's hair was so _huge_ that she probably only saw yellow _all _day. I wonder if she saw everything in shades of yellow? It must take _forever _to brush all that hair. In fact, I _knew _it took forever because she used to hog the bathroom for _ages _when we were younger. That was one of the reasons I kept my hair short, actually. That and because dad said it made me look more mature.

Right, so red was the best. I was pretty sure Enten would agree with me and these trees certainly shared my opinion! They were _all _red so how could they not think it was the best color of them all? They were always red, forever and ever, so since an entire forest was red that made it the best color, also forever and ever.

I nodded, resolute, as I followed Enten toward his family's house. Well, not exactly _following_ as in I-am-walking-behind-him but he sort of just pointed so I'm walking that way since he wanted to talk to Weiss. Or maybe Weiss wanted to talk to him? Whatever, I was kinda-sorta following Enten to his family's house.

_His family!_

Phoebe was so _cute!_ She had the _hugest_ eyes! And her markings matched her ears! And she was _tiny! _How was that not adorable?

It wasn't, that's how.

It wasn't _not_ adorable, that is.

Because it was. Adorable.

The trickling of a stream distracted me from my thoughts and I glanced at the water. It was running sedately through the trees and it was littered with red rose petals; it looked really nice actually. Sort of like one of those scenes from Blake's books – I _knew _they were hers despite her saying they were Enten's. _Boys _can't read romance books, _duh_; they were allergic to them. _Anyway. _The petals all floated-

"_Water rose,"_ I gasped, looking back at Enten only to find the boy already staring at me. He looked confused and then I realized that I kiiind of just randomly blurted out our new pairing name and he wouldn't have any idea what I was talking about and _way to go Ruby!_

"Uhh." Words, Ruby, words! "For our team name. I mean our pairs name?"

He smiled and I nearly cried in relief that he understood what I was trying to say but big girls don't cry so I didn't. Instead I just sighed. Like Yang did whenever she found me staying up late, working on Crescent Rose.

Which was an _awesome _weapon, by the way.

I ran my fingers across her surface, just to make sure she knew she was still appreciated even though she wasn't being used.

"That's kind of a mouthful," Enten said slowly, drawing my attention back to him. His eyebrows were furrowed and I panicked for a second. He didn't like it! I thought it was witty! Cause water was blue and roses were red…

"It makes sense, though," Yang said from her spot at my flank-I mean side... Flank was a weird way to say side but it was battle-talk so I used it to make me sound more mature and awesome but some people thought I was weird for doing that so I decided to just use 'side' instead.

Except in battle.

Then it was a flank.

_Anyway_. Yang was eying me with a smile and at least _she _was on my flank-side with the pairing name. It must be a boy thing. Maybe Enten didn't have wit. Or at least the same kind of wit girls had. I'd have to ask during our next girl talk.

"You liked freezer burn," I muttered, scuffing the ground with one of my boots. I heard Weiss sigh from her spot next to the sole boy on RWEBY because she _hated _it when I did something un-lady-like.

So I did it again.

I was _pretty _sure I wasn't pouting but Yang said that I did it without realizing it so _maybe_ the odd expression on Enten's face was my fault? Did I do something wrong? Maybe he didn't like ground scuffing either?

"It's a good name," he said, glancing at Yang for whatever reason. They did that a lot. Glance at each other. Maybe they liked each other? Like, _like liked._ Another question for girl talk.

"But I had one in mind already…"

I gasped and my hands flew to my mouth. He thought of pair names too? We could brainstorm them together and totally bond over it!

"What is it?!"

He narrowed his eyes at me. "I'm not sure if I want to tell you…"

Was he teasing me?! This would not stand.

"I am the leader of team RWEBY," I proclaimed, thrusting one hand into the air, finger pointing to the sky like the heroes in the books Yang used to read to me. They were leaders too! "And as your fearless, charming, _awesome_ leader, I demand-" No, that was too harsh. Like, villain harsh. "I _strongly suggest_ you tell me what your idea was!"

There. That was heroic; demanding stuff was for evil people. Like how they demanded money in exchange for hostages.

He got that half smile on his face that _immediately _put me on edge and went down at a knee, bowing his head. "My humblest apologies, great leader. I meant no offense."

"Uhh, it's fine," I said and that sounded kind of lame... I felt my face flush because I didn't know what to do now because people never apologized _like that_ to heroes! "Just- Stand up!"

He did, still smiling at me. I huffed and stamped my foot in response – Weiss sighed again but I ignored her – because leaders weren't supposed to be embarrassed like that! Maybe I should take this as a learning experience? Next time he kneeled in front of me I would do better!

"Mario," he said once he was back on his feet and _what?_

"Huh?" Oh real eloquent Ruby!

"Mario," he repeated. There was an odd look on his face now and his eyes were darting between us – Weiss, Yang, Blake and I that is. I thought he was trying to judge our reactions. That made sense, I did the same thing when I announced my names. I wanted everyone to like them, after all.

"Mario," I said, testing the word out. "It _does _flow well. _Maaaaybe_ a little bit better than water rose."

"Water actually flows naturally," Yang piped up then and how did that even matter? Of course water flows.

Enten groaned, drawing my attention to him. Weiss covered her face with her hand and Blake was-

_OH!_

"I get it! 'Cause I said 'Mario' flows well but water _always_ flows!"

"That's my sister," Yang laughed, throwing her arm over my shoulder and _wow she was heavy_ and trying to muss my hair! Ugh!

I swatted her hand away irritably. Short hair could still get messed up. I don't care what she said. She was wrong.

_Wrong._

I left the vile fiend known as my older sister chortling to herself and marched up to Enten because we were talking about something before my hair was assaulted. If only- there was water and roses; water rose, still an awesome name and he had one too…

"Mario," I declared, finger skyward again. He laughed but I ignored it; I _still _didn't know what it meant! And that was not okay.

My eyes narrowed and I hummed in thought – not like a musical hum but like a 'hmm, I'm thinking something and you don't know what it is', hum. The kind that made people nervous and sweaty and want to spill their souls to me.

Or at least that was the idea….

_Anyway._ I wasn't about to go shouting words that meant things I didn't know about. Yang once tricked me into thinking alcohol was just another word for milk when I was younger. Dad was _so _confused!

"What's it mean?"

He smiled but didn't say anything and only kept walking. I looked at Yang – _very begrudgingly_ – for help but she looked just as confused as I felt. That was weird. A word my older sister didn't know? This called for an investigation!

"Is this one of your weird scroll things," I asked after I'd caught up to him.

He snorted and I grinned; I _knew _what it was _really _called but it was so much more fun to call it that! "Yes, it has something to do with programming."

"Hmph. Alright then," I nodded. No one would know what it meant but him anyway; I was pretty sure he was the only programmer I was going to meet – ever. Mario sounded cooler anyway. And if people asked I could just smile at them like Enten did when he knew something I didn't. It was _such _a cool smile. If Weiss didn't hog the bathroom practicing her scowls – she thought I didn't know but Ruby _always_ knew – then I might be able imitate it better. Something to do in the future. Definitely.

Smile coolly like Enten. Right up there with grin like Yang.

I must have been walking slower when I was thinking which made sense because I was splitting my mind power. Anyway, Enten and Yang were ahead of me and- _oh! Blake!_

"Sorry," the girl said when I jumped. She was so _quiet!_

"It's okay," I said. I scared easy anyway, or so I was told. Not, like, battle scared but… I _startled_ easily. That was a better way to say it! Heroes weren't supposed to get _scared_. "You're quiet."

She blinked and looked surprised which was odd because I figured she would know she was quiet.

"Uh, thank you?"

Oh. I see now.

"I meant that in a good way," I confirmed with a nod. Conversation with Blake and Weiss was still a little stilted – such a weird word – but we were getting better. Especially since Blake started talking to me more. She would ask these odd questions and get all thoughtful and then just stop talking.

She was testing me. I knew that because despite what people thought of me, I wasn't stupid. I _deserved_ to be at Beacon regardless of my age. I may have a… unique view on the world but that was how heroes were supposed to be! Some people might call me naïve but Yang said I was heroic, valorous.

I liked those words better. They made me feel good about myself while the other words people used to describe me made me feel bad.

People were cruel, sometimes.

Enten was right when he said some people don't deserve to be saved but I would save them anyway. Because that was what heroes did.

They saved people, regardless of whether or not they deserved it.

"So," Blake continued slowly. "Enten's family. You haven't met them?"

"No," I groaned. Yang held that over my head _so _much after she learned about The Great Cry. She even had a picture with them! All three of them! _Including Phoebe!_ "But I want to!"

"Even though they're faunus?"

Weird questions like _that!_

"Of course! That doesn't matter!" The fact that they were faunus just meant Phoebe had adorable little ears on top of her head and – if Enten could be believed – an addiction to _bamboo,_ of all things. I didn't know why anyone would want to eat plants… unless they were roses, of course. I was pretty sure eating the most awesome flower ever made you the most awesome person ever. Maybe Phoebe ate roses? They probably tasted good. I should try one sometime.

_Anyway. _I wondered why Blake cared that they were faunus. It was like she was trying to feel me out or something; kind of like when I met new people and we were trying to get a feel for each other. That didn't make sense though because we knew- well, wait… no, we never talked about faunus before. Usually all of our prior conversations revolved around Enten which made me think she was _totally_ in love with him but she laid that thought to rest rather abruptly when I brought it up during girl talk. She was blushing though so she probably had a crush anyway – Ruby _always _knew; her secret was safe with me.

"-like that," Blake finished and I realized I just ignored her while I was lost in thought and _way to go Ruby!_

"Can you say that again? I wasn't listening."

She laughed and looked startled which was weird because I _knew _I wasn't as quiet as her. "I was just saying it's good that you don't think like that. Like faunus are inferior."

"Uh-uh," I confirmed with a shake of my head and she went quiet after that. I knew from experience that our conversation was over now so instead I decided to observe my surroundings some more.

They really were beautiful, all those red trees. Enten was lucky to live near them… Except for the Grimm part, anyway. That was sort of a downer. Especially because they killed his parents and _I_ knew that losing even one parent was _horrible_. Which-

"Watch the traps."

Enten was saying something now and – oh, was that a trigger mechanism?

_Wow_. For being in the middle of the forest it was surprisingly well maintained. I couldn't see any hint of wear and tear on it – was that polish? It looked like even the slightest disturbance-

"_Ruby!"_

I jerked away from the shiny piece of metal because I was _startled_ – not scared. Enten was mad at me for some reason; all I was doing was looking. Seriously. My hand was _at least _two inches away from it and he knew I had steady hands! I helped him build Aegis with them!

"Just…" He sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his nose – it didn't look like much of a bridge to me but that _was _its name so…whatever. "Just don't set anything off."

Well, _duh_.

Externally I just shrugged; he actually looked worried so I decided to stay away from all his traps.

Even if they could be improved upon.

Seriously, Enten. That barrel was _waaaay_ too poorly secured to absorb the recoil when it fired a bullet.

We walked further along the quaint little trail with the boy leading and I spotted no less than six more traps. Some poorly made but some passable, one was actually pretty impressive and I had to wonder how he got a log that big up in the canopy.

Eventually – after Yang was scolded for touching traps too; I was pleased – we came upon a clearing that-

_Oh._ A clearing. Wow.

It was more like a battlefield than a clearing. Toppled trees were _everywhere_ which meant rose petals were _everywhere_ which meant the ground was like a _sea _of _**rose petals**_!

I immediately dove into the nearest pile of them because _awesome_ and spent at least a full minute trying to make a rose petal angel.

"Ugh," a familiar voice scoffed to my left. "Can't you _try _to keep yourself clean before we meet Enten's family?"

I groaned and withdrew myself from the heavenly embrace of rose flesh. "Weeeeiss. I'm _fine!_ Roses are flowers. Flowers are pretty. Therefore, I'm pretty because roses."

It made sense and the way the girl's face flushed while she spluttered only confirmed my victory.

_Ruby: 1 Weiss: 0_

I wandered over to a tree and left the girl to bask in my awesomeness. We had an assignment to complete, after all, and just because I was _awesome_ didn't mean I could get out of doing school work! That's not a heroic attitude at all!

The grin was still on my face and the sour one still on Weiss' when Enten suddenly bolted by me after I just finished filling my jar with sap.

"Time to go," he yelled as he slipped out an opening that I totally missed before because it was _really _well hidden-

Yang landed in front of me and shoved her jar of sap into my arms. She was gone in the next instant, chasing after Enten with… oh, you poor, poor boy. With sap in her _hair_.

"Get back here!"

I started running after them, precariously balancing _two _jars of sap the size of my head instead of just one. Annoying older sister! Just because Yang wanted revenge on Enten didn't mean she-

_Whoa!_

A handful of sap, courtesy of the only boy on our team, flew past my face and judging by Weiss' screech, it hit _something_.

'_He's so dead now.'_

Sure enough, the girl surged past me with Blake hot on her tail and I realized belatedly that he managed to hit _both _of them. If _that _wasn't efficiency then I didn't know what was. Two birds with one stone, that was exactly what I wanted to see from my team!

We broke free from the trees seconds later, entering the outskirts of the faunus town, and Weiss stumbled suddenly.

I danced around her, just barely keeping my balance and that was _not _okay because if I tripped then _two _jars-

Blake stumbled now, just as we reached a yard full of dogs, and I danced around _her _too!

Seriously! You didn't just _stop _running in the middle of running! _Especially_ when the person behind you was carrying two very breakable jars of sap! So inconsiderate!

But that _was _a pretty good recovery.

And Weiss said I didn't have grace, psh.

I caught up to Enten and my sister shortly after the dog yard. Yang's jar was shoved back in her arms without delay – I wasn't her personal maid. They were on the ground in front of one of the houses – in front of the back of one of the houses… _Behind _one of the houses.

_Anyway. _It looked like my sister managed to tackle him. He wasn't dead yet, though, so that was good. She actually looked, kind of… _happy_. With sap in her hair. It looked like she dyed half of it blackish-purple and the other half yellow-

'_Bumblebee!'_

The house's backdoor slammed open then and a little girl charged Enten's back before I could announce my newest pairing name – which sucked because it was a good one! – and I realized I was seeing Phoebe!

In the flesh!

"_Enten!"_ She collided with the boy's back and I wondered _how _that didn't _hurt?!_ "You're back! Why are you here?" She paused just long enough to gasp dramatically. "Did you get kicked out!? Why would they do that?! You worked _sooooooo_ hard to get in! And plus if you're not there then where are you gonna go?! You couldn't have gotten kicked out! You're _AWESOME_!"

The little girl paused for another breath and I managed to close my mouth. That was _a lot_ to say in one go – like _too much_. I didn't know how she did it especially given she was half my size. Her lungs must be _huge!_ Maybe she stored extra oxygen in her body because she was a faunus? Oh! Maybe her _ears _let her speak more!?

"_IS THIS YOUR TEAM!?"_

I blinked, drawn from my thoughts by the screech, and belatedly realized she was pointing at us now. Us as in the girls on RWEBY. She wouldn't be pointing at Enten too, of course, he was on the opposite side of her. She could use both hands-

"_Is this RUBY!?"_

"No," Enten said, throwing me an amused glance. I felt my face flush. When he said his sister was a fan I never thought… _this_. "That's-"

"_Is this?!"_

Blake now. My face must have been as red as Crescent Rose – I reflexively touched her metal, just to remind both her and myself that we were still together – and it only got worse when Enten laughed and directed Phoebe's finger in my direction.

The little girl's eyes got _reaaaaally _wide and I was _pretty _sure I was about to be on the other side of a glomp. That didn't happen often… I wonder if it was as fun as it was to be the one _doing _the glomping.

"Phoebe, don't point. That's rude," a woman I recognized as Mrs. Melkweg said. She was just stepping out onto the back porch. She had the same fluffy ears and eye markings as her daughter- I guess it was the other way around actually. Phoebe would take after her mom, her mom didn't take after her… that'd just be weird. Like, _impossible_ weird.

A relieved sigh escaped me when the little girl turned away and I stopped clutching my sap jar super hard. Enten's little sister apologized and then not-so-quietly asked him to introduce her to me.

If _I _did that, Weiss would scold me and tell me I needed to be more tactful. Hmph. Talk about double standards, my partner wasn't saying anything. I shot her an unimpressed look that she studiously ignored but I _knew _she knew that I knew that she was being unfair.

So it was okay.

"Maybe inside," Enten said, laughing as he tossed Phoebe into the air. He caught the now-squealing girl and I smiled. It was good to see him so relaxed. He was always doing something at Beacon, I never saw him take a break. Between that weird Scroll thing, working on Aegis, training, classes, homework and whatever else he did when I wasn't- _EWW!_

I gagged and shot a glare in Yang's direction. It was _so her fault_ that my mind went there! She looked confused but _I knew she knew! She always knew!_

"_You_ told me what boys do when they're by themselves!"

The blonde grinned even as we were ushered inside by Enten's mom. She smelled nice. Oh no! Did I mention what boys do around Enten's mom?

"Thinkin' about Enten, huh? I didn't know you liked him _that _way…"

"_**No!**_"

Maybe that was a little too loud but we were _right. By. His. Mom… __**Seriously Yang?**_ Everyone was looking at me now. Stupid older sisters. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!

"Uhhh…" Think, Ruby, _think_. My eyes darted around the kitchen. Stove. Cabinets. Glasses – oh those were pretty! Floor. Ceiling. Fly in my face.

"Spider," I blurted out. "I uhh, I thought I saw a spider?"

Yang slapped her hand over her face – she looked exasperated but I _knew _she was doing it to hide her laughter – even as Phoebe screamed: "Spider!?"

"There's no spider," Enten said quickly, sending me an exasperated look.

My shoulders shrugged of their own accord. It was Yang's fault. It was always Yang's fault. Somehow, someway, it was her fault. I pointed at her for good measure. If dad were here he would take my side.

"But Ruby said there was," Phoebe protested, retreating behind his leg and scanning the floor.

Enten rolled his eyes. "There's no-"

"Ruby said so! She's your leader so she's right!"

The boy frowned and his mother spoke up: "Ruby," she said, looking at me. "Can you get the spider, please?"

"Uhh," I stammered, clutching my sap jar again. There was no spider… I thought they all knew that. "There's no-"

"Got it," Yang called loudly as she stomped her boot on the floor.

"There was a spider?!" I _hated _spiders. They were all creepy and crawly and disgusting and had _waaaaay_ too many eyes to _not _be evil! It was a good thing Yang got it. I was deathly scared – no, I was startled _very easily_ by spiders.

"Yes Ruby," Enten said, one of his eyebrows arched and that was another look I needed to learn to duplicate. "There _was _a spider."

"Oh," I said, glancing at Yang's boot. I didn't _see _a spider there but maybe I just missed it? I _knew _I missed something… everyone was looking at me strangely but I couldn't figure out why.

'_Ugh, social stuff.' _My fingers found Crescent Rose's metal.

Mrs. Melkweg cleared her throat then and thankfully pulled everyone's attention away from me.

"Well, this _is _a surprise," she said slowly, glancing at each of us in turn and finally coming to stare at Enten. She crossed the room and gave him a hug.

Phoebe huffed and stamped her feet. It made her ears bob – _so cute!_

"_I_ want a hug too!"

Yang snorted and I glanced at her even as Enten obliged his sister and started speaking quietly with his mom. My sister was looking at me again with an odd smile on her face. I didn't know what it meant and it was the first time I ever saw the expression on her face so I looked at Blake and Weiss to see if I could glean any information from their features.

No luck there.

Blake looked more intense than I'd ever seen her before and I was _pretty _sure our sap jars weren't meant to be clutched so tightly. Seriously. It was like she thought she would die if she let go of it! At least I could recognize the look on her face… It was one of longing. Like what Yang looked like that one time I found her in the attic, staring at a picture. She wouldn't show it to me though, no matter how much I pouted!

Because I _definitely _pouted. And I knew I was doing it too!

Because _sometimes, _just _sometimes_, heroes had to be evil for good!

Weiss looked scared but that was weird. I was probably just misinterpreting her expression. Enten's family was awesome! I was _pretty sure_ she wasn't scared of them so it was probably just my social inexperience making me think she was.

Ugh. Maybe Yang was right. I should probably talk to some more people if I thought Weiss was afraid of Phoebe… Oh! What if she was scared of spiders too! We could _totally _bond over that!

"Guys," Enten said, setting his jar of sap on the counter. He made some quick introductions – his mom said her name was Luna which was a _super _pretty name! – and afterward the woman moved to the pantry. Phoebe was following her, carrying a stack of plates. "Let's go into the living-"

"I want to see your room," Yang cut in, putting her sap jar down too. I followed suite.

The boy recovered from the interruption smoothly, though. _Too _smoothly, if you ask me. Like, _evil _smooth. Maybe he was evil?

"Only if I haven't been moved out of the house while I was away," Enten said, shooting a wry look at his mother.

She returned it with an unimpressed look of her own. "Dear, you'll be the first to know when I move you out."

He laughed, looking, of all things, startled.

Not so smooth then. He was off Ruby's list, for the time being.

"Don't touch those jars, Phoebe," Enten called as he started traipsing toward the stairs. The little girl in question stuck her tongue out at him but stepped away from the aforementioned jars with a _totally_ guilty look on her face. _That_ was a look I could duplicate…

Still, Enten wasn't helping his case. Only villains could predict what people were going to do so well!

…Okay. So I _knew _he wasn't evil but he _was _really perceptive… Like, strangely perceptive. Not on Headmaster Ozpin's level – _'How did he know I __**loved **__cookies?!' _– but like… maybe dad's level?

Case in point, just last week I was wandering around Beacon to get away from Yang and her lectures about being social and having more friends and how hanging out with just my sister wasn't healthy and _blah blah blah. _Ugh. I _so _totally had friends outside of Yang. Enten, for one. And Weiss. And Blake. And… maybe Jaune?

I still didn't need to be more social.

_Anyway_. Enten found me while I was wandering around and reminded me that it was time to clean Crescent Rose which it was and how would he know that? He totally didn't know that! I cleaned her once a week – _sometimes _spontaneously because she deserved it – and I _knew _I never told him.

Being social never even crossed my mind for the rest of the day!

"Here we are," Enten said, sliding a door at the end of the second floor hallway open. I noticed that Phoebe's room was just across from his; I knew because it said "Phoebe's Room" in big purple letters. Oddly enough, Enten's wasn't labeled the same way. Yang and I had matching labels on our doors… but that was more dad's doing than ours'. He kept forgetting which room was which; or at least he _said _he did… _I_ thought he just wanted an excuse to put mug shots of Yang and I on our doors.

'_Real funny, dad.'_

"Boring," Yang called from inside the boy's room. I came to my senses and promptly noticed I was the only one still in the hallway. Inside the room, the blonde continued: "Where are your posters? And your books? Where's _everything_?"

I crossed the threshold and couldn't help but agree with my sister. It was a really, really plain room. Usually rooms had signs of being lived in. Mine was filled with spare weapon parts and all sorts of manuals that I used to maintain Crescent Rose. Yang's walls were covered in posters and I _swear _she didn't have a floor, just clothes that covered it up.

By comparison, Enten's was… bland.

There was a bed – made neatly. A dresser. A desk. A bedside table… He had _one _book on his desk but other than that there was _nothing_. Not even a rug!

"I don't have any. Don't need them," he said, a sad-looking smile on his face.

A silence fell over us then, awkward enough that I wasn't sure how to break it. Thankfully, my partner stepped up to the challenge.

"It's," Weiss started, hesitating as her eyes searched the room. "…neat?"

"Spartan," the boy laughed, moving to his desk. He picked up the book that was on it. "I meant to grab this before I left for Beacon."

He held it up for us to see – it was a book on that weird Scroll thing he did.

"You're dull," Yang said and I thought that was pretty rude but secretly, totally true. "We need to get you a hobby."

"I have two," he said, tapping his fingers on Aegis and brandishing his book.

She rolled her eyes. "A hobby that gets you outside, dolt."

He only shrugged. "I didn't have much time to myself before Beacon… Everything," he paused and swallowed. "Everything I did was meant to support or protect my family."

Again, I wasn't sure what I could say to the break the silence that enveloped us. He had more experience in life than I did. He lived a harder life than me and had more responsibility put on his shoulders too! How did he manage to balance supporting his family, going to martial arts, taking Signal classes and doing whatever else- _not going there!_

Still… he cast a long shadow. Not for the first time, I wondered if I deserved to be RWEBY's leader…

"Enten! Enten! Where are- Oh!" It was Phoebe. The girl appeared in the doorway with a cheery smile on her face, completely oblivious to the atmosphere in the room. _Kids._ How they could be so oblivious was beyond me. Maybe it was her ears – they made her cuter but more oblivious too? "It's time to eat!"

"Time to eat, huh," he responded; any hint of sadness on his face was gone now. A moment of realization came upon me and I realized that he was either _really _good at hiding his emotions or his sister cheered him up _a lot_.

Phoebe grinned and nodded and I found myself hoping that it was the second realization that was true.

"Betcha Yang can beat you down to the table…"

The girl gasped and took off down the hallway. Childish laughter immediately found its way back to Enten's room when my sister stomped after the girl.

It made me smile, seeing Yang like that again was something that brought back memories of when we were younger. Before Signal or Beacon or Grimm or teams or _anything_. Back when we would play in the yard while dad was away at school or explore the forest and fight imaginary Grimm. Those were innocent times. But they were gone now. Like mom.

"Hey," Enten's voice said, interrupting my thoughts and I realized that it was just the two of us in his room now. He put his hand on my shoulder. "You alright?"

"Ye-" I cleared my throat. "Yeah. I'm good! Let's go eat!"

He smiled and dipped his head. "After you, glorious leader."

"Thank you, subject," I returned and I was _sooooo witty!_ Gone were the days Ruby Rose stumbled over her words when people prostrated themselves before her! Never again would she be humiliated by respect!

I strutted down the stairs, feeling pretty good about myself, with Enten trailing behind me because that was what servants did, just like in the stories. He just needed a butler's uniform now…

Weiss looked surprised when I entered the dining room and that morphed into a pleased look soon after. I ignored her though. Blake and Yang were sitting around the table and so were Phoebe and Mrs. Melkweg. I marched up to an empty seat; it was a fold-up chair that didn't match the table. Maybe their table wasn't meant for seven people? It _did _look a little small…

Oh well, a leader couldn't let tiny details like that distract her from the issues at hand. I pointed at my seat.

"Chair."

Enten arched one of his eyebrows – _'Again, need to learn to do that!'_ – and I panicked. What if I wasn't clear enough? I would look like a fool just standing here! I didn't want that – especially not in front of Phoebe! I felt my eyes widen and I started to reach for the chair but thankfully Enten grabbed it before I did and pulled it out for me.

I nearly sighed in relief but I didn't because leaders and heroes didn't show any weaknesses so instead I just cleared my throat like Weiss did when she was annoyed and daintily sat down. I almost tripped but I was pretty sure no one noticed.

"In," I said then and I smiled when Enten pushed me- _too far! Too far!_

I pushed myself away from the table and shot the boy a glare. He did that on purpose! There was no way he could have overestimated the table that much!

"Sorry," he said. "I slipped."

Slipped my butt!

"Enten," Mrs. Melkweg said and_Iknewthattoneandhewasinsoooomuchtrouble!_ "Apologize to her."

"I-what?"

"Apologize to her."

"But-"

"Enten."

Yang was grinning, I could see it out of the corner of my eye. Blake was even sporting a small smile now.

He turned back to me and I looked down my nose at him which was harder than I thought it would be because I was sitting and he was standing… But I still did it.

"Ruby," he said tersely even as my sister chortled; she tried to smoother the sound behind her fist but completely failed at it. I'm pretty sure I was better than her at chortling – maybe I could offer to teach her if she taught me how to grin? "I'm sorry for pushing you in too far."

Oh. Right.

"You are forgiven, servant," I said in my best Weiss-voice.

"You have servants?!" Uh oh. That was Phoebe. First the spiders and now the servants! Why me?!

"Uhh," I stalled, glancing at Enten for help. The boy only smiled at me as he took his seat across from me though and _fine_ – I had a sister too. My eyes darted over to Yang but _she had the same smile on her face and she was sooooo getting an earful later!_

"No…" What did heroes have? Heroes didn't have servants! "I have… um, I have companions!"

Phoebe gasped. "I want com- companins too!"

"Leaders have them," I nodded and was it just me or was I starting to sound arrogant? Heroes weren't arrogant…

"Which one is your favorite?!"

My eyes widened even as Mrs. Melkweg passed glasses of milk around the table. It was a good thing she provided me my drink of choice – all big girls drank it, after all, and I didn't need another concern on my mind right now because _wow _this was a difficult question and I'm _pretty sure _it was waaaaaay too hot in here all of the sudden and Enten _sooo_ wasn't my favorite because he was grinning at me like Yang was!

At this rate I'd chose Weiss over those two traitors!

"Blake," I blurted out, prompting the girl in question to jump. Why was she scared-I mean startled? Maybe she didn't like being my favorite? I thought she liked me! "Uhh, I mean Weiss?"

"You can't have two favorites," Phoebe exclaimed and _technically_ she was right but…

I cleared my throat. "Leaders can have as many favorites as they want. I like my te-companions. _All _of them." Even if _some of them_ – Yang and Enten – were still soooo going to get an earful later for leaving me high and dry with difficult questions! They were probably scheming, sitting side-by-flank as they were… it must have been easy to plot against me.

"Treason," I muttered, narrowing my eyes at them. They pretended to eat the sandwiches Mrs. Melkweg placed in front of them and totally not notice me but _I knew_ that they knew I was watching. Ruby was _always _watch-

"How many favorites do you have!?"

Oh, right. Phoebe. I thought I was getting better at answering her questions now. I didn't even _need _Yang and Enten!

"Four."

"Oh." She fell silent and stared at me for a second which was kind of uncom-

"Why is your hair short?"

"Uhh…" Maybe not so good at answering. _I _knew why my hair was short but that was personal! "It's… so… I can fly faster!"

Phoebe gasped and her mouth dropped open; her eyes went wider than I thought possible and it made her look like she had swirly eyes because of the black to white to black colors and that was just so _awesome _I couldn't even find words to des-

"You can fly too?! Can I see?!"

_Uh oh._

* * *

"Phoebe," Enten called up the stairs. "I've got to go back to Beacon now. Love you!"

Silence answered him and I frowned. The girl hadn't taken us needing to go back to school very well… I didn't want her to miss out on saying goodbye to her big brother!

He was turning to leave! What about Phoebe!? I would go up there and talk to her but it was _sooo_ awkward and that didn't make me less heroic it just meant… that I could delegate well! Yang should go and talk to her because… because… because she made me talk about boys doing things in front of Mrs. Melkweg – who was _super_ nice and thanked all of us _a lot_ when we decided to give her our sap jars too and had the most warmest hugs ever!

"Don't worry about it," Enten said the second I opened my mouth. He winked at me which confused me because how did he know what I was thinking? Maybe it was that weird Scroll thing? Maybe he was evil after all?

I nodded slowly. It was sad that his little sister was going to miss him leaving but we _did _need to get back to Beacon. That in mind, I grabbed my empty jar and walked out of the back door, followed by Blake, Weiss and Yang. Enten came out a few seconds later with his jar and… a washcloth in his hand?

'_Whatever. Must be a boy thing.'_

We walked as a group for nearly ten seconds, almost to the next closest home, when the back door slammed open.

"Wait!"

I turned and found it was Phoebe! She sprinted up to Enten and I thought I saw tears on her face… Aww! She threw herself at him, wrapping her arms as far as she could around his waist.

I had a goofy smile on my face but I didn't care. Anyone with a heart would _have _to smile right now.

"I remember when you used to do that to dad," Yang said quietly and I turned toward her to find her smiling at me. Subconsciously, I noted Blake and Weiss weren't smiling, but I was pretty sure they had hearts. Like… ninety percent sure.

I grunted to acknowledge her – Weiss made a disapproving sound but she could stuff it since she didn't smile – and turned back just in time to see Phoebe start running back to her house.

Enten stayed kneeling on the ground, though, even when the four of us hesitated. It was clear Phoebe was done-

She stopped and turned back around. The boy looked back at me and winked even as his little sister approached him, she was heading toward… us?

Enten grabbed her shoulder as she was passing him and, with the washcloth, wiped the little girl's face and arms clean. She spluttered and groaned and squealed in protest but he did not budge. Once he was satisfied, he let her go and gave her a little push on her back.

She harrumphed and stamped her foot but sprinted the rest of the distance to me with a smile on her face anyway.

"Bye!" She barely passed my waist! "You're awesome!"

A grin formed on my face – _'My first fan!' _– and I rubbed her hair and squeezed her back because she was _awesome! _Forget about the awkward questions. _Awesome!_

Phoebe repeated the gesture with Weiss, Blake and Yang before she darted back to her house. As she passed Enten, the boy dropped the washcloth on top of her head, prompting laughter from the girl. She ran the rest of the way waving the washcloth like a flag behind her.

"So," Enten said as he faced us. He had an odd look on his face. Kind of like the one Blake would wear occasionally when we talked. "That was my family. What do you think?"

* * *

**A/N: **Ruby is so much fun to write… Such a giant change of pace from Enten.

(01/12/2016) Revised.

Let me know what you think. Did you like the change in PoV? Did you find Ruby accurate? It was a little tough finding a balance between her innocent demeanor and her intellect. Drop me a line, even if it's two words, I appreciate the feedback!

**CrimsonHeresy: **Glad you liked it – Weiss is a surprisingly complex character. I'm only finding that out as I write the story!

**Brainthief: **First off, thank you for your kind words. Secondly, you're awesome. You hit on everything I hoped my readers would glean from my last chapter and it's _really _satisfying to see that happen!

To my other reviewers – thank you for taking the time to drop me a note. Seeing the favorites and the follows are encouraging by themselves but seeing someone take the time to write a review helps _so _much more.

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter!

-Phailen


	10. Chapter 10

_Two weeks later, Week 6_

I pushed myself away from the holo-terminal in front of me, frustrated and about ready to start cursing. No matter what I tried, I couldn't get my Scroll to show up on the simple, two-dimensional grid in front of me. It sat on the screen even now, unsympathetic and completely, utterly _void_ of the dot I wanted it to show.

'_Stupid grid._'

I was in Beacon's library, working on the headmaster's app at one of the long, wooden tables that supported the school's wide array of holographic terminals. To my right were a series of massive bookcases filled with students either chattering quietly to one another or reading on one of the many benches littering the aisles. Blake was there until only just an hour ago, now I was left with an ever-dwindling population of students and a program that _refused _to work.

It was nothing more than a two dimensional plane representing Beacon Academy; a grid that reminded me of the various Tron remakes I'd seen back on Earth. There were no motorbikes on this grid, though, there wasn't _anything _on it, actually. _Certainly _not a dot! Right now I wasn't even considering the third dimension when mapping out my location too! That was a headache best saved for another day.

I rubbed at my eyes – they were incredibly strained. It was nearing… It was nearing 7:00 in the evening now and I arrived in the library around noon. It possessed a relaxed atmosphere, perfect for coding, and the muted, natural coloring of the room made it easy to focus on my work. And I _had_ made progress. It wasn't like the entire day was wasted but if only the _stupid dot-_

A scoff escaped me as I closed my eyes and leaned back in my chair.

I was in no state to program; it had been too long since I saw a breakthrough in the headmaster's app and I was frustrated now. The angrier I grew the more the quality of my code deteriorated.

I heard a sudden influx of noise from the nearby bookcases, a welcome distraction. It turned out to be students complaining about their homework.

I could relate to that as well; the school work on top of the programming. The team training. The fact that I lived with four mood swing-prone teenagers who didn't pick up after themselves because they were, well, _teenagers!_ It was all _incredibly_ stressful.

And that wasn't even considering the situation with Jaune Arc.

The boy had withdrawn even further in recent weeks and now it was starting to affect Ruby. The girl was far too open, far too sympathetic for her own good. As the situation grew worse and the boy's condition deteriorated, my leader grew more and more distracted. More and more worried. It was even starting to negatively impact her performance in dueling class.

It was sad to see that fool drag his own team down but now that he was hurting _my _team? If he didn't shape up soon, I would have _words _with him.

I stood up abruptly and gathered my things. A wave of ecstasy – a welcome relief from my negative thoughts – washed over me as the realization that I would finally let myself leave the library set in.

'_Been in here too long today.'_

I might not have gotten as far as I wanted with the app and I might have far too much to worry about, but I still made progress – a respectable amount of progress, even. It was slow going, but I still felt confident that I would finish it by the end of the semester.

That was still months away, after all. Three to be specific. A little over a month had passed since I started at Beacon.

'_Has it really only been a month?'_

RWEBY had come a long way in a month.

'_Hell, we've come a long way in __**two weeks**__.'_

Our mornings were spent practicing as a team now. No longer was it just Blake and I that rose with the sun; Yang, Ruby and Weiss now got up with us. There were plenty of complaints in the first week – it was a rare thing that teenagers got up with the sun with nary a comment about the early hour; I bet that was the reason so few teams actually had time to practice together. Homework generally kept students busy in the evenings and so the only other time we could practice was in the morning or on the weekend.

It only made me even more proud of the girls for putting in the extra effort. And that extra effort showed, too. We completely decimated our competition in the last pairs/team dueling class and suddenly Weiss' complaints about messy hair and Yang's about losing sleep died out _fast_. Our only worthy opponents had been team JNPR and given the issues that team was having with its leader, we quickly out-paced them.

Team RWEBY had a reputation on campus now, at least among the first year students. There was no doubt now that we were the best in the class when it came to paired match ups – the singles duels were far more unpredictable but when a pair from my team took the stage, we would win. Unfortunately, the older students did not seem to care about the paired and team dueling days – probably because they did not count toward the ranking number – and instead only spectated the singles dueling days. Team CFVY members were the only exception to that rule thus far.

11-0.

That was our record in paired matches overall, after _two _dueling classes. I was wary of facing Pyrrha, because none of us had gone up against the girl in paired combat yet, but I knew we could beat anyone else in the class. Sometimes it might not be easy – Ren and Nora were still an amazing team and JYDE almost always made us work for it – but we could beat them. Goodwitch even suggested pitting the entirety of team RWEBY against two full normal teams in the next dueling class. The idea never failed to get me excited. Ruby, despite stressing out over Jaune and her school work and _everything_, had been hard at work coming up with team combos since we started practicing together and some of them were devastatingly-

"-just lucky _daddy_ is friends with the headmaster!"

"No!"

I was in the hall outside of the library now; it was dimly lit so I couldn't see the commotion but I could certainly _hear _it. They were speaking loudly and that was definitely Ruby's voice...

A frown quickly came over my face and I picked up my pace, quickly striding though the high, arched corridors, toward where I could still hear-

"How else would you get in," a boy asked. "You're just a kid!"

"Yeah," a girl's voice chimed in. "You don't even have any of _these_ yet!"

Well, if I didn't know I wanted to punch them in the face before, I did now. Ruby was self-conscious enough about her age already – she didn't need two idiots exacerbating an issue that was irrelevant anyway.

'_Some kind of cruel,'_ I thought darkly as I rounded a corner. It took a second for my eyes to adjust but eventually I saw the girl in question glaring at two other first year students – a red haired boy and a blonde.

RWEBY's leader scoffed, keeping her expression blank and her temper cool in the face of the insults. That fact actually made me stop moving and consider the situation. None of them knew I was there yet… I couldn't keep trying to coddle Ruby either. She probably didn't appreciate it and I _knew _Yang disapproved.

"You're part of team DMND. Right now you guys are _the worst_ in dueling class! You should try harder."

The boy spluttered some nonsensical words and the girl's face flushed an ugly – _maybe _I was biased – shade of red.

"It's just 'cause you're the headmaster's favorite!"

"_That's _what makes you guys suck?" Ruby snorted, snickering when the girl went redder. "At this rate you'll _never _get a mentor!"

The boy took a threatening step forward and I tensed.

'_My Semblance is deadly with or without Aegis asshole. __**Try it**__.'_

I needn't have worried though, my leader switched targets flawlessly.

"What are you gonna do," she said, an unimpressed look on her face that, frankly, looked like it belonged to Weiss.

The boy grit his teeth but scoffed, red faced now, and backed down. The punk spun on his heel and stalked off down the hallway. Against the grandiose back drop of Beacon's corridors, he reminded me of a toddler storming off after a temper tantrum.

The comparison made my lips quirk into a smile. And they thought _Ruby_ was the child?

"Come on, Marr," he said. "We don't need to waste our time with this _loser_."

The girl retreated as well, but not before she threw one last smoldering look over her shoulder.

Once they were both gone, Ruby immediately deflated. The girl rubbed at her eyes and stepped back to lean against the wall behind her, just underneath a large painting of – wouldn't you know it – the Forever Fall Forest. I waited until her harassers' footsteps faded to reveal myself.

"You handled that well."

She glanced at me, surprised. "And Yang says I need to be more social," she said dryly once recognition set in. It was an odd tone she spoke with, one that I found disconcerting coming from her mouth. I only just stopped the urge to try and act a fool to make her laugh – if I was to stop coddling her, I couldn't do it by halves.

I nodded toward where the pair had retreated. "They aren't worth the effort."

Ruby grinned. "Nope," she chirped, making a noticeable effort to smile. "Just jealous idiots… like everyone else on this campus now." She sighed and muttered something about knees; her smile wavered.

I grimaced but couldn't argue her point. Envy over the attention we received from Professor Goodwitch had been growing since the beginning of the semester, when team RWEBY solidly placed themselves at the top of the paired/team dueling class. The recent increase in skill that followed the start of our team practices only served to impress Goodwitch further and thereby exacerbate the jealousy issues.

The dueling professor's behavior in class was a startling change from Earth, one of the few that managed still to catch me off guard: she did not coddle her students. She gave praise to those that deserved it and criticism to those that needed it. There was no attempt to hide the fact that we made stronger teams than most of the other first year students; she even placed emphasis on it!

That she even considered pitting us against two other teams – while logical, given our five-member team – left me flabbergasted when she first announced it _to the entire class_. Not only had she pointed us out as _better_ but she did so in such a way that suggested the other teams were _worse_.

And to the entire class!

It drove home the fact that this world – Remnant – was very different from Earth. Here, it was a constant struggle to survive. The Grimm pushed against humanity's borders daily, conflict and strife hounded the faunus with every step they took and organizations like the White Fang were always looking to cause some destructive chaos to bring attention to their cause, damn the consequences. To live a happy life free of misery you either had to be very lucky or very well off.

Most people just got strong enough to survive the struggle.

It was a lesson that I learned all too late. Only after three parents were taken from me.

But no more.

"I got a mentoring offer," Ruby said in the silence of the hallway. Her eyes were unfocused and currently staring over my shoulder. "From team CFVY."

That was news to me. My mind immediately returned to the conversation I had with Adel weeks ago – was that what she wanted? Why she started that conversation? Had she been planning this for that long? Why us?

As far as records go, there were better choices. RWEBY was… well, we were doing _alright_ in the singles class but out of a maximum of four points, 2.2 wasn't all that impressive when JNPR and JYDE both boasted 2.5's. Even EMRD and SAFR had 2.25.

She must have guessed at my thoughts because she elaborated when I did not say anything. "She – Coco – said that we were the best team in first year. That as soon as we stop drawing each other we'd beat out the other teams no problem."

I grunted in acknowledgement. It was true that RWEBY's luck hadn't been the greatest when our opponents were chosen. Of the twenty matches we fought collectively… something like… four of them were intra-team. And even further, I knew three of our other matches were against Pyrrha – that girl was _impossible _to touch. Ruby, Weiss and Blake had all learned that the hard way.

"Huh," I grunted again, surprised. "I never realized it until now…but she's right. Our luck has been _horrible_. That she even noticed…"

It spoke highly of her analytical mind and only served to make me more certain that the girl was dangerous. She was cunning, charismatic, she was everything a leader should be. And that was easily the most intimidating aspect about her – I couldn't find any of her faults.

Ruby nodded. "I double checked our combat records after she mentioned that. Someone from team RWEBY has faced Pyrrha in every singles dueling class except for the one during week four. _That_ week we won four of our five matches.

"Blake has faced me, Yang and Pyrrha. She won her only other match. Weiss has faced you and Pyrrha. I've faced Blake and Pyrrha. You've faced Yang," she trailed off, shaking her head. It _was _kind of suspicious, how team RWEBY managed to face so many of their team members and the one girl that _could not _be touched. Later, I decided, I would look into the other team's combat records and see how many times they faced one of their own. A refresher on team CFVY was necessary now as well, I didn't want to stumble into a potential mentorship blind.

I looked back to my leader. "What's the protocol now?"

Ruby chewed on her bottom lip. "Uhh, I guess I tell the rest of the team and… meet with them? CFVY, I mean. Not the team – we kind of meet every day already." She laughed, sheepish, and rubbed the back of her head.

I nodded, a wry smile on my face now. It was good to see her return to her normal demeanor. "I agree. A meeting would be good before we make a decision. I want to know what we're getting ourselves into."

"Yeah," she said, nodding emphatically. "That's what I was thinking!"

I grinned at her as I put an arm around her shoulders. "Now, somehow I don't think you're out and about this late just to tell me about that…"

The younger girl usually had a strict schedule that she adhered to during school days – I thought it was something she used to give herself a sense of normalcy, given she was two years younger than her peers and largely unable to bridge the social gap that came with that difference in age. Right now she would either be studying or otherwise doing _something_ in the dorm room – like coming up with team combinations and strategies. She would also, unfortunately, take this time to brood over the situation with Jaune.

"Uh," she said, breaking eye contact for a moment. "No! I was looking for you!"

"Uh huh," I said, unimpressed. The way her shoulders drooped told me that she knew she'd been found out. "Still a bad liar."

She groaned melodramatically. "Fiiiine. I'm here… in this hallway… because…"

"If you don't want to tell me-"

"Noooo," Ruby sighed. "Ugh. I just needed some space. Yang went on one of her you-should-make-more-friends rants again! She treats me like such a kid sometimes!"

My brow furrowed. I knew it wasn't my place, criticizing Yang over her treatment of Ruby, but I couldn't help but think she should listen to some of her own preaching. Especially now, given RWEBY's reputation; making friends with other first years would be an exercise in futility. There were the upper years, but… still.

'_And __**I**__ need to stop coddling Ruby?'_

"You know she's just concerned."

"Yeah and so's Dad! And Uncle Qrow! And-"

She trailed off but I had a feeling I knew what her next words would have been…

"And me," I finished, quietly.

"No one takes me seriously," she said, a pout on her face.

I swallowed and considered my next words. It was still a fight for me to not immediately leap to Ruby's defense. I was learning, slowly but surely, how to let her fight her own battles.

"I can't speak for your family, but I'm trying Ruby. _I take you seriously_," I continued quickly when she frowned. "But I have a little sister too, you know? You've proven yourself to me- don't ever doubt that. But…"

I stopped, at a loss for words. But what?

Ruby more than deserved my respect. She had a strategic mind and proved far more capable than I at leading a team on the battlefield. I tended to get serious tunnel vision in combat but somehow Ruby was able to keep the entire area in mind while fighting and it showed in her commands. She had her faults: she was a little too naïve, worried over things outside of her control and couldn't socialize her way out of a paper bag, but then… no one was perfect.

"But… nothing," I said as I shook my head. "But nothing. I might have associated you with my little sister once upon a time and decided you needed protecting but now… Now I know better. The way you handled yourself just now proves that. You kept your cool and fended off two jealous idiots and didn't need any help at all! If anything, that just confirmed the fact that you _don't need me to protect you_."

And it was true. I realized that as the words were leaving my mouth. I was not sure when it happened but I did not feel a need to protect Ruby any more – well, no more than I felt I needed to protect Weiss, Yang and Blake anyway.

"Thanks," she smiled weakly. "Now if I could just get Yang to stop pestering me about _friends_."

I shrugged. "Yang's definition of social is different than yours." It was an observation I was reasonably confident making.

"That's what I said," Ruby exclaimed as her eyes widened. "But she was all 'you can always have more friends Ruby!' and I was like 'I have enough already!' but she wouldn't listen!"

I hummed in acknowledgement, deep in thought. I couldn't just ask Ruby if she was happy with the friends she had now, even if she was, she wouldn't convince herself of it by telling me. And that's what she needed… she needed to be convinced that she was happy with her friends.

"Have you had any trouble talking to people lately," I asked slowly, a half formed plan coming together in my mind.

"No," she said and I nodded.

"Why's that?"

"Well, because… I don't know? I just… don't?"

Maybe that wasn't the best approach to take.

"How about this: do you ever feel lonely anymore? When Yang is off with her other friends or I'm off doing that 'weird Scroll thing'?"

She grinned when I made a face at her; that was _still _her name for it.

"Nope," she chirped. "Usually I can study with Weiss or talk to Blake. She's been talking to me more lately, by the way." Her eyes widened. "Oh! I think I saw her bow _twitch_ yesterday! But then I was like 'no Ruby, bows don't twitch' and _that _got me thinking about Zwei's ears 'cause they kind of look similar to Blake's bow _and _they twitch!"

"Ruby, Ruby!" I laughed when she stopped and her cheeks flushed. She was still excitable and prone to talking as much as Phoebe, but gone was the thought that she was just a child. "It sounds like you're not lonely anymore, huh?"

She shook her head emphatically. "You guys are awesome! I mean I thought I'd have _so many_ friends at Beacon 'cause it was a new start and _everyone_ has cool weapons but I don't _need_-"

Ruby stopped abruptly and gasped.

"I don't need any more friends," she cheered and if that wasn't the weirdest thing I'd heard come out of her mouth – that day – then I'd wear Blake's bow. She launched herself at me and hugged me around the neck. "Thank you!"

Then, she was gone, sprinting down the hallway toward our dorm room. A sudden playful feeling swept over me and I blasted off the floor with a Semblance empowered leap.

"Race you," I called as I passed her, liberally utilizing my Semblance to leave her in the dust.

I heard her splutter indignantly and then she drew even with me in a shower of red rose petals. I knew she could beat me in a foot race but I laughed and pushed myself harder anyway, prompting the girl to do the same.

In the end, neither of us made it to our dorm. We ran into Goodwitch half way there – literally _ran into_ Goodwitch – and ended up in her office instead.

I was still in a good mood when I went to sleep that night, despite the lecture we received.

And the stupid Tron-grid without a dot.

* * *

_One week later, Week 7_

I walked from the dueling hall at a clipped pace; my shoulders were tense despite my best efforts to remain calm and my features were set into what I hoped was a convincing façade of neutrality. I was nervous; it was only the presence of Aegis was on my dominant arm, my team around me and the need to remain calm that kept me from showing it.

It was time for RWEBY's meeting with CFVY.

"Coco Adel," I started slowly, scanning my Scroll and speaking to the team at large. Ruby herself was trotting beside me – _'Slow down, don't make her run.' _– while the other three were trailing along behind us. "She's smart. Real smart. Perceptive too, be careful what you say around her. Potential motives: unknown."

"You're stressing _way_ too much over this," Yang called from behind me. I glanced back at the girl to find her ambling along with her arms behind her head, the picture of calm. She was either far more adept at hiding her emotions or she truly did not care enough about the meeting to get worked up. I knew from our team discussion about this meeting last night that it was the second option. She did not think there was any reason to worry.

I was envious of her nonchalance. Life would be simpler if I did not need to care, if I could just assume everything would be alright and not have to worry about my decisions.

But it was that exact attitude that got my father killed. It was that exact attitude, the 'everything will turn out alright' mindset that got people killed in Remnant.

Luckily for Yang, she was strong enough to fight off Grimm. My father? He was not. We found that out the hard way when we ventured into the Forever Fall Forest thinking everything would be alright. That the few people attacked by Grimm each year would never be _us._

I learned my lesson.

There were enemies out there far stronger than the Grimm. People we needed to care about, lest they end us. CFVY and their hierarchy could be in that group of people, for all I knew, and that was why we needed to know their motives. We needed to figure out why they made _us _an offer when their hierarchy's strength could have easily netted them JNPR or JYDE.

"She probably just made the offer because we're good. You said it yourself last night: RWEBY's gotten bad luck for matchups so far, it's only a matter of time until we get lucky," Yang finished.

I shook my head, frustrated that she wasn't taking this seriously. "Were she looking for a strong team she would have offered JNPR, JYDE, EMRD or SAFR the mentorship. They were ahead of us last week, remember?"

"Yeah," Yang said, impatient. "And now we're ahead of EMRD and SAFR and tied with JYDE. See? She was right – she just had the foresight to know that we'd be really good and make us an offer early, before any of the other teams realized it."

"Then what about JNPR? And don't count JYDE out yet. Both of them are strong teams and they've proven it too. She took a gamble on us when she could have just made an offer to a team she _knew _would be good. Why?"

The blonde made a frustrated noise, something between a grunt and a scoff. "I don't know, alright? Maybe she figured five people on a mission would help her more than four? I don't know! I just don't think we need to be worrying about this so much!"

I was at a loss for words to convince her but luckily Ruby jumped into the fray.

"Remember when Jaune didn't sit with JNPR at lunch," the girl said quietly, herding the lot of us over to a sunlit alcove where we could talk. The younger girl immediately slouched into one of the easy chairs while Weiss took the other; the white-haired girl had a nail file out and was currently focused on her hands.

"Yeah," Yang said slowly and I had to admit, I was confused as well. The event in question happened just last week, JNPR's leader decided he was going to sit with team CRDL. Rather, he was _made _to sit with team CRDL – whatever, not my problem.

"Remember how sad Pyrrha was? And Nora and Ren too?"

"Well… sure?"

The blonde sounded unsure of herself; that was a rare occurrence and even rarer that it was her younger sister causing it.

"They wanted him to sit by them because they were all part of a team," Ruby said quietly, sadly. "But he didn't and that upset them _a lot_, remember? If a tiny decision like that can make people _that_ sad then a big decision like accepting a mentorship and joining a hierarchy can make a lot of people see us differently. That's why it's important."

The alcove fell into silence as the girl stopped speaking and I found myself incredibly impressed with her. I would have tried to explain potential outcomes and over-complicated the issue entirely too much to argue Yang's point but Ruby got the job done with a simple example of a social situation. It made me wonder if the girl was truly socially inept or if she just had trouble vocalizing her thoughts.

"Wow," Weiss muttered, her nail file frozen over one of her fingers. She – along with myself and Blake – were staring at the youngest member of our team. Yang had her arms crossed and was currently looking out the window with a thoughtful look on her face.

Ruby, her face growing redder by the second, glanced at all of us and made an unsure sound. "What? It made sense didn't it? You guys understood?"

"Yeah," I said and I saw Blake nod in my peripheral as well. "Just… wow. That was… that was better than I ever could have explained why I was worried. Simple, easy to understand…"

"Ruby's smart," Yang said, smiling at her sister as she turned back to us. "She's got an analytical mind that she should use more often, too."

"Well," the girl started slowly as her eyes dropped down to her boots. "Usually Enten explains stuff so well and uses all those big words and thoughts and stuff and I just don't wanna… Don't wanna dumb the conversation down with my explanations."

"You don't dumb our conversations down, Ruby," Weiss said resolutely, returning to her fingernails.

The smile that appeared on the younger girl's face was so earnest that it made me smile as well. I did not realize I was doing that to Ruby but then, that was part of learning to be a team, right?

"Don't ever feel like you're dumb, oh glorious leader," I said, prompting the girl to smile wider. "For all my big words and complex weird-Scroll-thing thoughts, I couldn't find a way to get it through Yang's thick skull that we should be more concerned about CFVY. You made it look like child's play."

"I've got a lot of practice at getting things through Yang's thick skull," she said, grinning even wider. I likened her appearance to that of the Cheshire Cat now, from that one movie back on Earth. The 'We're not in Kansas anymore' one… what was its name? That was going to annoy me until I figured it out…

"My thick skull is right here," Yang said dryly, drawing me out of my thoughts. "And I _guess _I can see why you two are worried… I still don't think it's too big of a deal but I can admit that we need to know more about CFVY…"

"It's a little late for that admission," I said. "Our meeting is in a half hour."

The blonde shrugged even as Blake settled herself in a window sill. I went to the wall beside the cat faunus and leaned back against it.

"Luckily for you, Ruby and I have been hard at work learning all there is to know about team CFVY and their hierarchy."

"Is that why you were in the library so much this week," Blake asked, eying me first and then swiveling her head toward Ruby when the girl spoke.

"Yeah, Enten and I were looking up CFVY's members and the other teams in their hierarchy."

"You've said that four times now. What's a hierarchy?"

"It's Beacon's name for a set of teams," Ruby said, leaning forward in her chair. "Professor Goodwitch has mentioned them before, we're you listening?"

Blake flushed minutely when the younger girl grinned at her. It was no secret that the black-haired girl read every chance she could get, including during the speeches Goodwitch regularly made at the beginning of our dueling class. I couldn't really blame her; it was usually the exact same one every day.

"Anyway," Ruby continued. "A fourth year team, a third year team, a second year team and a first year team make up a hierarchy. There's also these… 'factions'?"

I nodded. "Adel told us about them," I said for the group's benefit. "I don't really like her word for it – it makes it sound like the hierarchies are part of organized groups. In reality it's subtler than that."

A pause allowed me to gather my thoughts – these 'factions' were a difficult topic to explain but incredibly handy for predicting a hierarchy's actions once understood.

"When a second year team extends an offer to a first year team there are a few things that typically hold true. One is that the two teams' opinions on the faunus, the Grimm and other… let's call them 'touchy issues' tend to align. For example, we know Pyrrha and Nora are all for taking the fight to the Grimm right? Well, since CHRY just offered JNPR a mentorship, CHRY's members likely want to act aggressively as well."

"That's not always true though," Ruby continued. She was there with me when Adel found us in the library. The unexpected olive branch caught us both off guard. "Sometimes a team has to mentor another team who doesn't agree with them because there aren't any teams left to chose from – like with APPL in Coco's year."

"On a first name basis already," Yang teased. "Aren't we supposed to be wary of CFVY?"

The younger girl flushed. "She asked me to call her Coco because Enten wouldn't," she said quietly.

I shrugged when the blonde turned to look at me. It was true, Adel was apparently upset that I wouldn't use her first name and convinced Ruby to start doing it instead. It wasn't exactly a hard sell, the younger girl was still desperate to please in social situations so an offer to use a more personal name was accepted readily.

"Our lady killer," Weiss commented sardonically, glancing at me briefly before she returned her attention to her nails. They must have been extremely messed up for her to spend so much time on them, either that or she was just a perfectionist. She _did _take the most time to get ready in the morning, maybe that was it?

"What does CFVY's hierarchy think of the faunus," Blake asked. Her eyes widened minutely and she must have figured out that it sounded odd she only cared about the faunus part because she continued: "And about the Grimm too. What faction are they- What _are _the factions?"

"Best to just think of them as ideologies that a hierarchy's teams share," I muttered from her side. Thinking of them as factions with clearly defined lines would get her nowhere.

"And we don't know what they think of the faunus or the Grimm," Ruby admitted, glancing at me even as I shrugged my shoulders. "But since Velvet is on their team, I think it's safe to say they aren't anti-faunus."

"We don't know that," I reiterated. "I've never seen her with her team before so it might very well be that they ostracized her."

Ruby and Blake both frowned and I knew the feeling. It was hard enough figuring out what CFVY thought, much less the other two teams in their hierarchy. It required a lot of effort and just as much patience to map out a hierarchy's ideologies – their 'faction', whatever you wanted to label it; the entire ordeal almost wasn't worth the effort.

But knowledge was power. Knowing one team hated the faunus was useful if you ever found your team facing them down – suddenly your faunus teammate became the most likely individual to be attacked and plans could be made around that. Knowing another team did not approve of the leadership in a foreign country became extremely important when events like the Vytal Festival brought that very same leadership to Vale.

There was power in being able to predict how a team would act. In understanding their motives. That was why Ruby and I spent so much time studying CFVY and their senior teams, UHNS in third year and HRCN in fourth. We did not find as much as we wanted, but we were able to find out that UHNS' ranking plummeted at the beginning of their second year. They went from first in their year to sixth in a matter of weeks; given HRCN consistently finished first in their own year, the ranking loss for UHNS was strange.

The only thing I could think of was a breakdown between the two teams, a conflict of sorts. It made me wary of joining.

Still, I was interested and I knew Ruby was too. Adel offered us the knowledge of Beacon's factions freely and with that knowledge I started to look at intra-team interactions in a new light. It was useful – never would I have thought to study how teams in a hierarchy worked, if their opinions aligned or not.

It was an unexpected olive branch Adel offered the two of us and, by extension, team RWEBY. I knew that. What I did not know was why she thought an olive branch was necessary in the first place. I could guess… the issues between UHNS and HRCN were my first thought but I did not know enough of the details to be certain. Maybe she just wanted to show us that working with her would benefit us?

I sighed and just barely resisted the urge to rub at my eyes. Today was going to be a _long _day and I needed to be at my best for it.

"Also," I continued, drawing the rest of my team from their thoughts. "There are _always_ more reports of campus violence at the beginning of each year. Most of those reports die out after the first three months," I said, drawing their attention back to me as I manipulated my Scroll into showing me the data I'd collected during my downtime in the dueling class. Some of my permissions to the academy's records _may _have been abused but I didn't plan on doing anything malevolent with the knowledge… "They stop right about when all the first year teams have mentors."

"So, what, you think we're gonna get attacked," Yang asked from where she was reclining against a pillar.

"It's possible, Yang," Ruby said quietly.

The blonde shook her head. "Oh come _on_, there's no way the headmaster would let that kind of stuff slide!"

I disagreed but I held my tongue. I knew it wasn't naivety that kept Yang from admitting an attack was possible, rather, I thought it was her demeanor as a whole. She was almost always laid back and anything that threatened to upset her was usually brushed off without a second thought. It was her way of dealing with losing two mothers, most like. She kept herself removed and emotionally aloof so she didn't have to worry, so she didn't have to get attached and risk being hurt again.

It was why she was so good at interacting with her peers – she never took anything personally and when that was combined with her easy-going attitude it made for someone _very _easy to talk to.

The only exception I was able to identify thus far was Ruby. When her younger sister was added to the equation Yang became a completely different person. She tackled problems head on and pursued even the smallest possible threat to her sister's safety – it bordered on paranoia, her protectiveness.

Maybe we were alike in that. I knew I was not self-aware enough to make an accurate decision on who was more protective but I _could _see myself in her actions; I was the same in how I watched over Phoebe.

Weiss cleared her throat then and put away her file with a flourish. Smoothly, she rose and started strutting off down the grandiose corridor. She was in full-on heiress mode right now; it was a startling change from the Weiss I'd come to know as part of team RWEBY.

I looked to Ruby and the girl shrugged, rising to follow her partner with far less grace.

A firm grip upon my upper arm kept me from following them. I turned to find Blake staring at me intently; Yang was just behind her, eying the girl with a quirk in her eyebrows that suggested confusion.

"Blake," I asked when the faunus said nothing.

"These… hierarchies," she started slowly, swallowing heavily when she heard Yang shuffle toward us behind her.

"Blake," the blonde parroted, placing one of her hands on the girl's shoulder. "What's up?"

The gesture reminded me that Yang grew protective of all her friends, not just Ruby. Whenever the girl identified something that was upsetting to any of us, even me, she would work to eliminate it. Aloof and withdrawn she may be to those she did not know, but let it never be said that Yang Xiao Long was a bad friend.

She would go farther than I would to help, certainly. That kind of loyalty was invaluable. It was also the reason I never brought up her faults; her insecurities. Her positive traits more than made up for them.

I was drawn from my thoughts by an insistent tugging on my arm and I followed it without really putting any thought into the action. I knew it was Blake trying to lead me somewhere; I was content to follow and put to rest any of her worries that, presumably, were too sensitive to discuss in the middle of the hallway.

Sure enough, the girl led myself and, surprisingly enough, Yang into an empty classroom nearby. It wasn't a lecture hall, like most of the ones Beacon possessed. This one was a simple, level room; a teacher's desk was placed in front of a blank chalkboard and rows of chairs were placed opposite it. The midday sun spilled in from long, short windows along the far wall; it starkly reflected off of the polished wooden surface of the miniature desks each student chair possessed.

"I," Blake started, looking at me. She stopped and did a double take when Yang placed herself in one of the student desks, trailing off into silence.

The blonde, aware of the stare, frowned. I knew from experience that she was hurt at the perceived slight. Blake didn't want her around; given she only grabbed my arm to lead me, the faunus had probably thought Yang would stay in the hall.

"A girl with trust issues," I muttered quietly in the faunus' direction, ignoring the smoldering look she shot at the side of my face when I immediately turned to Yang thereafter. "Remember the day you met Phoebe?"

"Yeah," the blonde more asked than responded. Her lips quirked into a confused smile and the deep furrow of her brow lessened ever so slightly.

"What'd you do?"

Yang laughed. "What's with the random questions? I, uh… I think I rubbed her ears."

I shook my head. The blonde did indeed rub my sister's ears that day, but it was a different action she took that assured me she was a good person. An act of kindness and understanding that spoke to me of maturity beyond her then-fifteen years of age.

"I…" She paused and scratched the back of her head and I realized she was embarrassed.

A smile grew on my lips and I turned back to Blake. "When Yang first met my sister, Phoebe was hiding behind mom's legs. She was wary of humans and rightfully so, given how they treat faunus.

"Yang recognized that," I continued, looking back to the now-blushing girl. Who would have thought retelling a single heartfelt action would break the blonde's composure so thoroughly?

"She knelt down and said 'I like your ears. They're much cooler than mine.'. Then, she gave my sister the beanie she was wearing – obnoxiously orange," I continued, grinning wryly at Yang. "She still wears that thing to this day, you know? She even cut little holes in the top of it, so her ears could be comfortable.

"Only after we convinced her Yang wouldn't mind, of course," I finished, looking back to Blake and jabbing my thumb toward my other partner. "She recognized a little girl's fear and made a genuine effort to put her at ease. And it worked. It worked _so well_.

"You changed her, Yang," I said, looking back toward the girl in question. She was staring at me now, any embarrassment forgotten and replaced with an expression I could not readily identify. "Before that day she wasn't outgoing. She didn't express herself and she _never_ talked about what she wanted to do in the future. Phoebe was shy and withdrawn; she only ever came out of her shell around me and mom. And before that day she never, _ever_ mentioned wanting to be a huntress.

"You gave her hope, Yang." It was only as I was speaking that I realized all of that was true. Phoebe changed after she met Yang and I was only now just realizing it.

"Thank you," I finished, softly, with as much sincerity as I could muster. "You did something…" This was a _hard _admission to make but… it was true.

"You did something for her that I never could."

She shrugged and smiled softly; her cheeks still faintly glowing. I knew then that I wasn't going to get a verbal answer out of her, but that was alright. I didn't need one.

I glanced back at Blake, finding the girl reaching up toward her bow. Her actions were hesitant and her eyes were riveted on the blonde; there was no fear but there was uncertainty in her expression. I knew her doubts weren't warranted… she would learn that soon enough.

"I'll leave you two alone," I said, turning my back on Blake and heading toward the door. To my side, I saw Yang glance back at her female partner, looking like she'd forgotten all about her; the girl's eyes promptly widened in surprise then and I knew my part was done here. I could answer whatever questions Blake had about the hierarchies later, this was more important.

* * *

_A short time later_

"So this is it?"

It was a plain wooden door, polished to a shine and protected by finish colored a dark mahogany. It looked heavy and I thought that an apt description of the pressure upon my – _our, _really – shoulders.

This was more than just a decision to tag along with team CFVY on their missions, it was more than a choice to accept a mentor for the rest of our time here at Beacon. It was something that needed to be approached rationally. Something that needed to have its positives and its negatives weighed. It was a fork on RWEBY's road, the importance of which I believe Yang, Blake and Weiss realized only too late.

That was my failing, or maybe it was Ruby's… No… no, it was mine.

I was the one to convince my leader that our actions here would have repercussions beyond just the next four years. Was it not my responsibility to do the same with our other three team mates while Ruby did what leaders were supposed to do and prepared as best she could?

Maybe I should be laying the blame at their own feet, for not seeing what I did. Perhaps I was just expecting too much from them – I would have changed some of my decisions in my past life if I only had the experience at the time to see how they would affect me. It was unfair of me to expect that kind of foresight from them and it frankly wasn't worth worrying about now. I needed my mind clear for this.

"This is the room number they gave us," Ruby responded, looking at Blake – the one who asked the question.

It was CFVY's – as well as UHNS' and HRCN's – clubhouse. A sign of their agreement that was more than just an agreement.

I likened it to an alliance, it was more fitting. The word had more weight than agreement.

Ruby glanced at me and I met her eyes, nodding. We prepared as much as we could. Every scrap of knowledge available to us was gathered and studied. Hours were spent over the past week detailing our notes and the 'what-ifs' of CFVY's motives. Our schoolwork suffered and our team hardly saw us but we _could not _go into this blind. We needed to know, to understand, so that we could make a rational decision.

We also spent a great amount of time trying to predict what the meeting with the senior teams would entail. Would it be an interview? We prepared answers. An interrogation? We prepared lies – something Ruby was not at all comfortable with. Would it be a discussion? We prepared safe topics. Would it be a combat test? We prepared strategies for each of the elder teams.

Throughout all the planning, despite the occasional bump in the road, I remained impressed with Ruby. Not once did she complain while we strategized and plotted. Never did her focus wane for more than a few minutes. Between the two of us, we stayed focused and efficient and by the time this morning rolled around I was more than ready to just be done with the meeting. Given how much time it stole from us, I was certain Ruby shared my opinion.

Movement startled me and I withdrew from my thoughts just in time to register Yang knocking on the door. I hoped the blonde was right – that there was nothing to worry about here and that I was overreacting – but somehow I had a feeling she was dead wrong.

"Enter."

* * *

Malamig Ink – Scroll OS [Version 3.4.235] © Malamig United. All rights reserved.

Initializing….

Welcome, MelkwegE….

C:\Users\MelkwegE: **vim z:\classMateNotes\secondYear\CFVY\AdelC;**

…Opening file "AdelC"…

_Coco Adel. Team CFVY: Second year student. Leader of team CFVY. Attends pairs dueling class. Singles class too. Meticulous about her appearance. Perceptive, smart, confident. Fights with purse – potential weapon? Unknown. Mentored by UHNS. Appears distant with them – internal conflict? Keep an eye open. Cares about team? Yatsuhashi confirmed._

wq!

Writing file….

Quitting….

C:\Users\MelkwegE: **vim z:\classMateNotes\secondYear\CFVY\AlistairF;**

…Opening file "AlistairF"…

_Fox Alistair. Team CFVY: Occasional observer. Quiet. No pupils? Easy to anger, protective? Crush on Adel. Confirmed. Backed Adel in interaction with UHNS today; shares conflict with them? Unknown. Wrist blades._

wq!

Writing file….

Quitting….

C:\Users\MelkwegE: **vim z:\classMateNotes\secondYear\CFVY\ScarlatinaV;**

…Opening file "ScarlatinaV"…

_Velvet Scarlatina. Team CFVY: Faunus – rabbit. Never observed class. Quiet. Timid? Unknown. Gets picked on – team was not with her. Internal conflict? Was with team today, didn't say much. Weapon is unknown, carries nothing. Blake is sympathetic toward her, cannot let it influence decision._

wq!

Writing file….

Quitting….

C:\Users\MelkwegE: **vim z:\classMateNotes\secondYear\CFVY\DaichiY;**

…Opening file "DaichiY"…

_Yatsuhashi Daichi. Team CFVY: Large boy. Fights with a greatsword. Occasional observer. Appears amiable with teammates. Speaks with Adel often. Shadowed Scarlatina today – protective? Possible. Likely. Quiet. Detention on record in first year, conflict with another team – unknown name. Scarlatina's name was mentioned._

wq!

Writing file….

Quitting….

C:\Users\MelkwegE: **logout –f;**

Closing session….

Good bye, MelkwegE….

* * *

**A/N: **Boom! New chapter! And with this chapter we start to venture into more original elements of the story's plot; or rather, the _real _plot starts to get introduced. Up until now I've just been character building and laying my foundation, within the next few chapters that'll be finished and we'll get into the fun stuff!

(01/12/2016) Revised. UHNS: Uranus. HRCN: Hurricane.

Thank you all for reading and, for those of you who did, reviewing. Reiteration has many more favorites and follows than other stories with comparable review counts – sometimes four times as many! So thank you and, if you can be bothered, drop me a note. It helps more than you might think!

To my **Guest **reviewer: Enten will soon find it hard to devote time to the headmaster's app, much less any personal ones he wants to write! So to your question, I say: other things.

**Sgolek1:** I had hoped the new PoV would be a nice change of pace. Blake, Yang and Weiss will all have their own PoV chapters eventually… Weiss' is even closer than you might think!

**Brainthief: **I love reading your reviews, don't know if I've told you that yet, but I do. The amount of thought you put into them is flattering! Yes, I found it difficult to try and balance Ruby's innocence with her qualities that made her a fit leader for RWEBY - given she was on a field trip and saw no combat, her thoughts were more inclined to be innocent. Disproportionately innocent, even.

I'm glad you liked it overall. PoV chapters for Weiss, Blake and Yang will hit in the future, though only after we've moved forward with the plot more. Seeing things from another perspective allows me to reveal motives and thoughts that otherwise wouldn't be observable to Enten.

Stay awesome!

**theMAO17, Ghost of the Reaper **and **Finder18:** I'm glad you guys liked it! I found Ruby incredibly fun to write and the change in perspective refreshing. Thanks for reviewing!

If anyone is still reading this note-that-has-become-a-short-paper, I have a question for you…

What do you like more: combat or character interaction? Or both?

Till next time.

-Phailen


	11. Chapter 11

_Previously…_

_Movement startled me and I withdrew from my thoughts just in time to register Yang knocking on the door. I hoped the blonde was right – that there was nothing to worry about here and that I was overreacting – but somehow I had a feeling she was dead wrong._

"_Enter,"_ a feminine voice called from inside. It was neither Adel's nor Scarlatina's, so it could only belong to one of the three girls from the third or fourth year teams.

I nudged Ruby forward and the girl jumped. She moved toward the door nonetheless, grasping the polished brass handle and leading RWEBY into the room.

It was expansive. That was my first observation. The ceiling was arched and tall enough that I had to crane my neck to see the elegant windows adoring its domed interior. The room was large enough that it could probably fit six or seven of our dorm rooms inside and still have some space leftover. Long, narrow windows were spaced evenly about the circular room's perimeter and they managed to make the already open room seem even larger.

It was decadent. That was my second observation. Marbles pillars imbedded into the walls were placed in between each window. The floor was marble too, white in color just as the pillars were. In the center of the room, a massive rug stretched across the ornate stone and on it was no less than six full sized couches, an assortment of armchairs and, in the center, a large circular table.

It was on the sofas and in the armchairs that I found CFVY and UHNS. No HRCN though. That was weird. The most senior team in the hierarchy might not care about a first year team, given our ranking only overtly influenced CFVY's, but I thought it strange that they were missing something that only happened once a year.

I glanced about the room, just to make sure I hadn't missed them. I _did _see doors – four of them – placed under some of the windows, identical in appearance to the one RWEBY just walked through. There was a massive flat screen hanging on one of the walls as well; its screen was off and in the otherwise bright, sunlit room the dark surface looked horribly out of place.

No HRCN.

…_reports of physical violence…_

My eyes narrowed and I placed myself behind the girls, closest to the entrance and to one of the doors in the room – the one labeled 'HRCN'. If we were to be ambushed by a fourth year team then I wanted to be solidly _in the way_. I prodded Yang into moving next to me – I hoped it was subtle enough to escape notice but I could never be sure with Adel. The blonde moved without complaint, she was still taking in the grandiose chamber with ever so slightly rounded eyes.

It occurred to me when that only Weiss and I would be used accommodations such as these. Marble was rare in Remnant and it was only my past life that allowed me remain neutral while taking in the room. Ruby and Blake were likely affected just as much as Yang. I never saw grandiose rooms like this at Signal and I was fairly certain RWEBY's resident faunus hadn't exactly lived a life of luxury.

Thankfully, Ruby either managed to get over her awe quickly.

"Thank you for inv-"

"Do not speak," the same feminine voice interrupted Ruby. I knew now that it was Sjeverni Suhoca from UHNS, the one with the odd hair – it shimmered constantly and shifted between shades of purple and pure black. "_We _will speak and _you _will respond."

Ruby only nodded mutely and I frowned. The girl looked shaken already and it must be nerve-wracking for her to deal with this alone. I wanted to stay where I was in case we were attacked but Yang… I glanced her way and found the blonde already moving to stand behind her younger sister.

'_Great minds…'_

"Oh, Sjev," Adel muttered, shaking her head. "Always so _polite._"

The third year scoffed dismissively. "Shut it beret! You're already in hot water – _don't_ make it worse."

Alistair noticeably bristled, prompting the third year girl to laugh derisively and look back toward RWEBY.

"HRCN will be unable to make it to this meeting. _Unfortunately_," she shot a displeased look at Adel, "they are currently on a mission. We were only made aware of this _accident_-"

"Sjeverni," a male voice, irritated, cut across. He spoke her name like it was a command of some kind and, even if I didn't know what he looked like, I knew then that this was UHNS' leader. "Avoid airing our dirty laundry in front of our guests."

He was a plain looking boy with chestnut colored hair. His face held no defining features, like Weiss' high cheekbones, my strong jaw or Ruby's soulful eyes; he was average in every way but for the patch of deadened skin on his nose. I knew from the academy's medical reports that he visited the nurse with a nose injury early into his second year, what I did not know was how he received it.

I shook myself from my thoughts and moved away from HRCN's door, back toward RWEBY. A lot of information was just thrown at us, most of it subtle in nature. For one, CFVY did not want HRCN at this meeting. Secondly, Suhoca certainly didn't approve. Thirdly, Uhrglas Kristall – the name of UHNS' leader – commanded the girl's respect, something I figured would be difficult given her temper – anyone that could earn three detentions in a single week was probably hard to control.

A short glance was thrown in CFVY's direction as Suhoca re-took her seat and Kristall faced us. The second year team was clustered around Scarlatina – the faunus girl – and generally looked uncomfortable. Might be that her status as a non-human was the point of conflict between them and HRCN… Or perhaps, between CFVY and Suhoca?

"You were called here by Coco Adel of team CFVY. The reason being: a pending invitation to join our hierarchy." The brown-haired boy was leaning forward now, elbows on his knees, fingers entwined under his chin; he looked the dictionary definition of calm.

"If I may," Adel cut in, prompting Suhoca to throw an annoyed stare her way. The leader of CFVY ignored it in favor of looking in askance at Kristall.

The boy hesitated but eventually nodded, leaning back in his armchair as the younger leader stood.

"My name is Coco Adel, for those of you whom I haven't personally met," she started, smiling in our direction. Given my previous interactions with a cunning, devious, strong-willed girl, the lighthearted expression startled me. "I lead team CFVY; the ragtag group behind me."

Daichi snorted and Scarlatina muttered something under her breath; Adel laughed.

"From left to right: Fox Alistair, Yatsuhashi Daichi and Velvet Scarlatina… I believe Enten is already familiar with our resident faunus."

"You could say that," I said slowly, wondering where she was going with this. Introductions were nice and all but rather unwarranted in this case; unless UHNS didn't know RWEBY – that was a possibility.

"I meant to thank you for that… _We _meant to thank for it. Velvet was running late that day, otherwise we would have been there for her. Too much work on her secret project," Adel continued, throwing a wry grin at the faunus in question who then answered with a shrug.

"Would've liked to see you punch that kid across the dining hall," CFVY's leader said, taking her seat with a satisfied smile on her face. The entire interaction left me confused and a little wary, she-

"That was _you?_"

Suhoca was standing again, staring at me incredulously. Her hair was mutely shuffling between shades of purple at a methodical pace. Like it was slowly measuring the benefits of turning a certain color before it actually did it.

I nodded once, wordless. It was clear she cared about the incident and I hoped she wasn't friends with Cardin. That would only complicate this meeting and potentially lose us a mentorship offer before we even had a chance to weigh accepting it against waiting for another hierarchy show interest.

"How," she demanded. "How did you do it?"

I stayed silent, hesitating over telling her about my Semblance or trying to come up with a lie. The truth was the easiest route and it wasn't like I kept my abilities a secret, the girl could look them up on Beacon's public roster easily. Given that, a lie didn't make any sense – it could only hurt me and, by extension, team RWEBY.

"He's just that awesome," Yang said, laughing as she threw an arm over my shoulder. "The look on his-"

"Physical strength alone doesn't make it possible to hit a boy – a _large _boy at that – so hard he flies across the length of the dining hall. The power needed to do that is _immense_," Suhoca continued, deliberately ignoring the blonde at my side. "So, firstie, _how. Did. You. Do. It."_

I only just managed to keep the frown off my face. Her attitude left much to be desired. It made me wonder why Adel orchestrated this entire situation; she was the one to bring the incident up and so she definitely had a reason for doing it outside of making this girl hound me.

The second year girl winked when I threw an annoyed look her way; when paired with the half smile on her face she almost looked encouraging. Like she wanted me to succeed.

I didn't trust her. Trust was a fickle thing. It took time to build, conflict to strengthen and a mutual effort to make it work. Adel and I had none of that. My teammates and I didn't even have most of that; two months of cooperation and a single notable fight – while it was certainly a start – did not an ironclad trust make.

But if I ever wanted to be accepted by CFVY then Adel was the key I needed to open that door. I suppose I could give her the benefit of the doubt here, I suppose telling Sjeverni Suhoca about my Semblance wouldn't come back to bite me.

I stepped forward and detached Yang's arm from my shoulders, squeezing her hand as a measure of reassurance as I did so – the girl wasn't too happy about being interrupted. The action placed me at Ruby's side, no farther; a minute detail it might be, it was the minute details that people picked up on subconsciously. They mattered. No power plays between teammates.

"I used my Semblance," I said, clenching my free hand into a fist and allowing my power to gather around it. It glowed a reassuring blue and I spread my fingers, allowing it to dissipate into the air.

Suhoca was staring now, unabashedly and unapologetically. Her eyes, narrowed slightly, were riveted on my hand.

I summoned up more of my Aura, now curious. She looked awfully intrigued – I wanted to know why.

"I can mold it into nearly anything I want," I continued, urging Aegis into expanding and bringing the massive shield up in front of me. My left hand was placed on the inside of it and in short order I had a translucent blue kite shield twice the size of my weapon hovering in front of me.

I'd have to avoid telling them that I used my Aura to directly power my Semblance. That was something that, while not hard to guess, I certainly didn't want to just divulge to them. Not before I knew more about them; more than they knew about me, anyway.

"And enhance your blows," Suhoca muttered, a faraway look in her eyes. Suddenly, they snapped back into focus. "Show me!"

The girl's hair flashed again and I held my tongue before I started making excuses. She wanted to see my Semblance? Fine. But I would have something from her in return.

I threw my free hand forward and the power I'd gathered around my fingertips rushed headlong into UHNS' midst. It took the form of a small, nearly invisible wave of pure power and rocketed toward the third year girl in a manner capable of creating visible ripples in its path.

Her eyes widened in surprise but her reflexes didn't let her down. Already her right hand was swinging upward and when my attack reached her, an arc of incredibly bright purple energy was there to meet it. My Semblance dissipated harmlessly on either side of her, cut vertically in half by her defense. It rustled the girl's hair, now agitatedly shifting between ever brighter shades of purple, before it faded from existence completely.

Utter silence was left in the wake of my action and I saw Ruby slap her hand over her eyes in my peripheral. Weiss muttered something under her breath behind me but I ignored her in favor of analyzing the girl's defense.

I was satisfied. Suhoca's actions told me a lot about her, more than she ever thought possible, probably. I knew for a fact now that she did not use her Aura in the same manner I used mine, in fact I doubted she used her Aura at all for her Semblance. Given the brightness and general visibility of that energy, I thought it had something to do with light. _Solid _light, perhaps?

Her right foot was in front of her left one, a stance that suggested she was right handed. Her hair was calming, slowing in its colorful transitions; it had something to do with her Semblance, that much I knew. I couldn't make any guesses at what exactly it did until I saw her use it more, though.

Disappointing, that.

I lowered Aegis after Suhoca only stared at me, relatively certain-

She lashed out at me, sending a bolt of that same bright purple energy at me and _damnit I'd been had for a fool!_

It was too fast. _Far too fast_. Aegis was by no means light and I couldn't lift it as fast as I needed to in order to block her attack.

No choice then.

My left arm intercepted the bolt of energy and I pushed a good portion of my Aura into the limb, projecting the life force around it so densely that it visibly glowed blue.

Her attack hit me and my Aura absorbed the entirety of the force behind the blow; it wasn't much and my arm was only pushed back a few inches. What caught me off guard was the heat.

It was _hot_.

My skin grew red very quickly at the place of impact and even though I'd negated the force, the heat was something that I could do nothing about, not without Aegis at any rate. Must have been why she waited for me to lower it.

I grunted and stepped back, studiously ignoring the already growing urge to itch at the burn. All in all, I'd call it a successful interaction – I knew her Semblance had something to do with light, likely of the ultraviolet nature. All I'd shown her of mine was the ability to manipulate energy into projectile-like attacks and shield-like defenses. I thought I came out on top, mostly because I'd have never known she could manipulate ultraviolet light without being attacked by her.

It was invisible to the naked eye, UV light… We could only register its presence by the effects it had on our skin. Or some kind of special camera or something; perhaps a measuring instrument specifically attuned to pick up... I didn't know the finer details. Maybe it was more accurate to say it was _easiest _to discover ultraviolet light by using the effects it had on human skin. That piece of knowledge made getting attacked worth it, especially because Aegis was entirely immune to its effects.

'_Trump card.'_

I was careful to keep my face blank while I collapsed Aegis. I'd already been made a fool once here and, though I came out on top despite that, I did not want to give away that I knew more than I should.

Around me, the girls relaxed even as Suhoca retook her seat without a word. The girl was burning a hole – maybe literally, I didn't know yet – into the side of my head with her staring. It grew to be more than a little unnerving just as Adel decided it was time to speak again:

"Well," she clapped her hands, still smiling. "I think introductions are in order. Enten, you don't need to go – I think we all know who you are now."

Ruby took over then and started introducing the rest of RWEBY and that left me free to think on Adel's actions.

I still didn't know what she wanted- well, _mostly _didn't know… I knew her goal: get RWEBY into her hierarchy. I didn't know why she instigated the interactions between Suhoca and I… Did she want me to make the girl mad?

'_No,'_ I decided. _'She looked just as surprised as everyone else when I attacked.'_

So she didn't want – or at least expect – me to attack the third year. She _did _want the third year to question me though, to show interest-

'_Oh you manipulative wretch!'_

She wanted Suhoca to show interest in my _abilities_. Not in me. She wanted the third year girl to ask after my strength and suddenly this entire hierarchical conflict started to make sense.

Sjeverni Suhoca was interested in strength, in growing stronger. I knew that now. Her team plummeted to sixth spot shortly after their second year started, a significant loss given they finished tied for the top spot in their first year. That loss of ranking directly ran counter to her goals and likely explained her anger over HRCN's exclusion from this meeting.

They were her meal ticket, after all. Her mentors and her means to grow stronger. It would be frustrating to see them pushed away.

There must have been a falling out at the beginning of UHNS' second year then. Something to explain the sudden drop in their ranking. Something that would get Suhoca mad enough-

'_Team CFVY.'_

The animosity the girl showed to Adel and the familiar manner in which it was brushed off spoke to me of a long lasting antagonistic relationship between the two girls. Suhoca blamed Adel – and team CFVY – for whatever made her team fall from grace in HRCN's eyes.

That Adel purposefully excluded HRCN from this meeting only made me surer that her team was responsible, knowingly or not, for the distance between the third and fourth year teams. Because that distance was the only thing I could think of to explain the sudden drop in UHNS' ranking – a team didn't just magically get worse, not as long as they kept up their training. But they _could _improve at a slower rate than their classmates. I couldn't speak from experience but not having a team to mentor you definitely decreased the rate at which you grew stronger, maybe even enough that a team could fall from first to sixth in two months.

That was a scary thought. Did mentors truly matter that much? What could they offer us that our own training could not?

The answer came to me relatively easily, just as Ruby finished introductions. I knew I should pay attention but when my mind got going it was hard stopping it, _especially _because it was even harder picking up on the same train of thought once I became distracted.

But no, the answer was experience. Given I had so little – real – battle experience, I never could have predicted it would matter so much. Apparently it did, though, enough to cripple UHNS and earn CFVY the ire of one Sjeverni Suhoca.

But that left me with one question: how did CFVY cause HRCN to distance themselves from UHNS?

And, perhaps more importantly, was it purposeful?

"-speed," Ruby was saying. "_Extreme _speed, fast enough that I can't use it too often or I'll knock myself unconscious."

I only just kept the scowl off my face. She was far, _far _too open sometimes, that girl. Far too trusting. These people were unknowns, I wouldn't go as far as potential enemies but at the same time we didn't know them. We didn't know what their driving ambitions were or if they ran counter or ours' – to RWEBY's, that is.

"Interesting," Kristall said. "An agile rifle, a duelist's blade, a guardian's shield, an assassin's knife and a brawler's fists… You complement each other well. A happy coincidence that the lot of you got stuck together."

He looked over at Adel. "Perhaps I _will _observe a team dueling day. Especially if the good professor follows through on her plans to pit them against two of their fellow teams."

"We'll kick their butts," Yang said, grinning in the same confident, happy-go-lucky manner I'd come to expect of her. To some it might be too confident, bordering on cocky, but to me it was reassuring, her attitude. I worried, I planned and I plotted. The blonde just grinned and charged ahead, confident that everything would work out in the end.

Maybe that was why we got along so well? We balanced each other out.

"I guess we'll all have to come and see it, then," Adel joked. "It's not every day Beacon sees a team good enough to take on two – even if the team in question has five members…"

"Yes, I wondered about that. Do any of you know why the headmaster allowed the rules to be bent? In our year," Kristall said as he gestured to his team, "we had an uneven number of students too. Luckily – or sadly, depending on your point of view – one student was killed during initiation and the numbers evened out. Headmaster Ozpin never said anything about a pairing of three though…"

Ruby shrugged and I shrugged along with her. The truth of the matter was that I knew very little – only what Ozpin told me during my meeting with him the day of initiation and the time I saw him about the app he wanted developed.

The old man alluded to a lot of things in both meetings, most of them generally dark in nature. How the coming years would test all of us. How we needed to rely on one another. How he would like to leverage my skillset. _My skillset_.

At the time I assumed he meant my programming but after I thought about it, I realized he probably had half a dozen programmers on hand working under him. Why did I matter?

Again, in the end I knew very little, just that the headmaster was planning something. I had a feeling it might involve RWEBY but I had no idea what it was. I largely forgot about my suspicions anyway, given all the other things I had going on.

Kristall sighed. "Very well, then. I suppose we'll just have to let the headmaster keep his secrets." He paused and leaned back in his chair. "Now, to the reason you are here: joining this hierarchy."

Another pause, artfully done, allowed the room to transition from the last subject to this, more important, one.

"Yes," Ruby responded at length.

"Short and simple, an admirable trait in a conversation partner," he continued and he _had no idea what Ruby was capable of_. "To that end, I have two questions for you and two questions only. Then, I make my decision. First: your opinion on the Grimm?"

This was a question we rehearsed. One of the common ones that Adel so kindly mentioned to us – the girl's help allowed Ruby to compile the team's opinions accurately. The idea was that she would then be able to answer more easily, given she knew she didn't need to worry about her team agreeing with her answer.

"The Grimm are a threat to our society that will never die, that will never fade," Ruby started, speaking with surety and confidence that I rarely ever heard from the girl. Maybe it was Yang's supporting hand on her back or the fact that we prepared this answer… Or maybe she was just coming into her own as a leader – whatever the reason, it was reassuring to know that she had the ability to stand her ground in front of two older teams. They certainly made for an intimidating audience – that much I could say for certain.

"To hide behind walls while our enemies evolve and grow stronger means that we'll, uh," she swallowed and took a moment to clear her throat. "We'll only stagnate. The Grimm will overrun us and then… then all will be lost. We cannot hide from them – they will _always _find us."

I was not sure if it was intentional or not but Ruby covered her stumble well – the last half of her answer was spoken quietly… it presented the façade that the pause was only due to the fact that she felt strongly about the topic at hand. It was well done.

Kristall nodded but did not speak further on the matter, instead he moved on to his last question. "And now, the faunus?"

"They're people too," Ruby said immediately, shrugging.

There was a short pause in the conversation then, wherein Kristall waited for Ruby to elaborate and the girl stayed silent. I thought she was doing well, especially given the fact that we hadn't even been offered a seat yet. Evidently this was to be more of an interrogation than an interview or a discussion and the lack of amiability in the room only unsettled me more. Though to be fair, I _probably _only made that worse by attacking Suhoca.

Probably.

Thankfully, there was a silver lining in all of this: RWEBY was similar in most of our opinions. The faunus and the Grimm happened to be two topics that we agreed upon – though Weiss was still slightly hesitant with the first one. The girl had come a long way since the beginning of the semester. Her progress with her fear left me feeling proud and satisfied in equal measures.

Kristall grunted and reclined in his easy chair. "I am satisfied. Given the short notice, though, I think you can offer us a chance to ask questions?"

It was more of an order than a request, given the boy glanced at his team rather than RWEBY.

'_Ugh, power plays… Have to make sure those first years know their place.' _

I needed to watch my sarcasm. This wasn't the place for it.

"What," Suhoca said, drawing me from my thoughts as she jumped to her feet. Her hair flared briefly, glowing with an ethereal purple light before it faded back to a barely noticeably hue. Immediately I grew wary; her silence since our little exchange and the way she'd been staring at me was incredibly uncomfortable.

"No one'll mention it? You _know _what HRCN-"

"Sjeverni," Kristall interrupted again. "Do you have any questions for RWEBY?"

Right, we needed to figure out why HRCN was being excluded from today's meeting. More importantly, we needed to figure out why there was a potential conflict with us joining. That was new information. _Important _information.

Given the timing of Suhoca's objection and the way CFVY was arrayed around Scarlatina, I was willing to bet it had _something _to do with faunus. Were that true, the most likely conclusion was that HRCN was in the anti-faunus camp, faction, whatever and disapproved of UHNS taking the role of mentor to Adel's team.

…Which might also explain the drop in UHNS' ranking at the beginning of their second year! If HRCN cut ties with them over CFVY joining the hierarchy then the faunus must be an important enough issue to them that they would willingly take the hit to their ranking to make a point. That was worrying, especially so given my family were faunus and, of course, Blake's status.

"My family are faunus," I said, cutting across Suhoca's response. It probably didn't help us any, antagonizing her, but at this point I was leaning toward waiting out another mentorship offer anyway. I doubted we'd get one from a team as strong as CFVY but if it meant avoiding this drama then I felt it was worth it.

"Clearly, HRCN has some issues with the faunus and those who support them. That's problematic."

Ruby made a surprised sound and I heard either Yang or Blake move behind me, they were both standing too close to each other for me to tell them apart by sound alone. Adel frowned, it was the first negative expression I saw on her face since the meeting began, and the rest of her team shifted uneasily.

Kristall just laughed. "He _is_ perceptive," the boy said to Adel. Then, to RWEBY: "I apologize for the deception but given your defense of Velvet, Coco thought it necessary to hide the root cause of our… _disagreement_ with HRCN.

"Make no mistake, I feel RWEBY would make a fine addition to the hierarchy," he continued. "In fact, allow me to clear the air… an olive branch of sorts."

He paused.

"I am neither for nor against the faunus – they are people just as humans are, capable of the same feats humans are and, in some cases, _greater _feats. Only the foolish deny that they have value, that they can be just as useful as any human. Unfortunately, HRCN is among those fools."

He paused, a grave expression on his face as he leaned forward and clasped his hands together. "I knew from the beginning that CFVY was a strong team, one worthy of joining this hierarchy," the boy continued, nodding toward the team in question. He received only neutral expressions in response but didn't seem overtly bothered by it. "Thus, I extended an offer to them. Let UHNS become their mentor and join this hierarchy. They accepted and I upheld my offer even when HRCN threatened to ostracize my team over the entire ordeal.

"I was in a difficult position, you see – the other strong teams already accepted mentorship offers and I waited far, far too long to make mine. CFVY was the only team remaining that had any potential – left high and dry because of Ms Scarlatina's presence. I admit, it was not my first choice, but I was left with no other."

He paused again, either ignoring CFVY's faunus or unaware of the ever increasing hunch in her shoulders.

Humans were cruel creatures.

"In the end, I decided that accepting CFVY into the hierarchy was worth it even if it lost us HRCN's support. I was wrong. I underestimated their willingness to see their own ranking suffer just to prove a point, but what could I do? Every first year team had been taken and three teams in my own year were left without a subordinate team. The three teams lower than UHNS in ranking, as it so happens.

"So, CFVY joined this hierarchy and HRCN cut all ties with my team. We suffered for it but we did our duty, we fulfilled our end of the bargain despite the consequences it leveled at my team. CFVY grew stronger while UHNS fell from grace. We made the best of a bad situation, brought on by my inexperience… I learned only too late."

He leaned back in his chair and rubbed at his eyes. "There you have it. The sordid tale of UHNS' fall from grace and the difficult position in which we find ourselves now."

Right, this was a situation in which RWEBY _did not _need to involve ourselves. Once Blake was outed as a faunus – because that _would _happen, it was only a matter of time – she would be probably be targeted by HRCN. At the very least she would have to endure the scorn of her hierarchy. I would too, to a lesser degree, just because my mother and my sister had a different pair of ears.

There was also the issue of their reactions when they actually _learned _Blake's secret. Hiding one's race from their hierarchy probably wouldn't go over well when the proverbial cat got out of the bag…

I felt a small smile grow on my face despite the situation. I'd been hanging around Yang too much.

"We accept."

My thoughts immediately ground to a screeching halt because we did _what?_ What was this we? I studiously ignored Adel and the smirk she was now sporting in favor of trying to burn a hole in the back of Ruby's head.

"We accept your offer… if you'll have us," the younger girl elaborated when the silence – probably because _everyone _was surprised and it was no wonder because they _should _be – started to last too long.

'_Shit.'_

* * *

_That night_

"They need help!"

"_They _need help. We weren't on the hook to give it to them _until you accepted the offer!"_

"Part of being a huntress is helping _everybody_," Ruby argued. "They're stuck in a bad position and trying to fix that! We should help them do it!"

I rubbed at my eyes, more annoyed with the girl than I had been in a long, _long _time. "We don't need to help everyone with a sob story, Ruby. _Especially _if it hurts us!"

"A lot of things'll hurt us! The Grimm will hurt us! Criminals will hurt us! It's our _job _to get hurt so other people won't!"

"Other _people. People._ Not hunters! Not huntresses! This is- _was _their mess! We had no reason to involve ourselves in it!"

The girl growled in frustration and turned away from me to pace; I sighed explosively because she _still _didn't get it and threw myself back onto my bed. The ceiling of our dormitory greeted my sight but this wouldn't be our dormitory for long anymore, not since Ruby up and decided to join a hierarchy and we had that bit of news dropped on our laps. Apparently moving in with the other three teams was mandatory – the dorms were only meant to house the first years for the first few months of their time at Beacon.

'_Wonderful. We get to go live with people childish enough to throw a fit over a faunus.'_

Blake, Yang and Weiss were silent, for the most part. RWEBY's resident faunus wanted to say something, I could see that in the way her eyes darted between the lot of us restlessly. Her bow was twitching more often too. She held her tongue, though, silently hugging her knees on her bed.

Yang was – as best I could tell – sulking. The blonde hadn't said a word since we left the clubhouse three hours earlier; it was unnerving, given she usually made everyone aware of her thoughts readily.

Weiss… Weiss was probably being the most mature out of the lot of us, I had to admit. Instead of arguing or complaining or brooding, she started to pack. Of course, it might have just been necessity that drove her rather than acceptance… the girl had _a lot _of stuff.

But she was right in focusing her efforts on being productive. Ruby made her decision – _childishly and naively so_ but she made it all the same. I had to support her now else I'd risk tearing the team apart; I was fairly certain Weiss agreed with me while Blake supported Ruby. I should probably just stop making an issue of it. I did _not _want RWEBY to become another JNPR.

"Alright," I sighed, forcing myself to sit up and I was unable to completely repress the sigh that escaped me. "Alright… so we're part of this hierarchy now. For better or for worse. Probably the latter-"

'_No. Stop it. Enough!'_

"We're part of this hierarchy now," I bit out and then fell silent. I didn't trust myself to speak any further lest I spark a conflict.

"Yes, we are," Weiss confirmed, placing one of her shirts – folded with great care – into one of her many suitcases. "A hierarchy that you needlessly antagonized by attacking that girl, by the way."

I snorted. "First, I never expected we'd end up in it and secondly," I continued, ignoring Ruby's half-groan, half-whine. "I learned a lot from that exchange."

Knowledge that I'd need to record, actually. Doing that had slipped by mind after the meeting – go figure – and it was best to update my notes while it was all still fresh in my mind.

"She uses light to fight," I said, manipulating my Scroll into showing me the notes I'd taken on Beacon's students thus far.

"I think we gathered that," Yang snarked; her voice actually startled me, it'd been hours since she spoke. "The whole glowing hair thing kind of gave it away."

"You sound jealous," I returned, wondering if _that _was the reason the girl was sulking. Surely not… maybe. Actually I wouldn't put that past her. At any rate, I let her splutter for a moment before I continued. "Not light as in really bright energy. I mean light as in actual light. When she threw her attack at me my arm absorbed…"

The force behind it? But, come to think of it, I don't remember there being any force behind the attack at all. No… the action of jerking my arm back was reflexive.

"Actually, it didn't absorb any force at all because the attack had none. It was just… light. Ultraviolet light that _burned_, but just light."

"Maybe that's why she waited until you lowered Aegis," Ruby offered, far more meekly than usual, from atop her bed.

I glanced her way and the entire situation we found ourselves in came rushing back. Times like these made me regret forming bonds with my teammates, as bad as that sounded. It would be so much easier to just look after myself in the lion's den that was to be our home for the foreseeable future. Now, I had to babysit four teenagers as well.

…Maybe I was blowing things out of proportion. They were capable of taking care of themselves and two of the three teams in the hierarchy were on our side. HRCN would… HRCN would actually be on our side too, until Blake's faunus nature was revealed. But if we could keep that secret for at least the rest of the year…

This might work. Still, precautions needed to be taken. Simple things like new locks on the doors and windows for starters; Ruby would probably help me with that, she felt bad about making a snap decision and would probably want to make it up to me.

"Yeah," I muttered absentmindedly once I realized the silence was starting to make it look like I ignored the girl. "Yeah…"

There was a lot that needed to be done. We needed to protect ourselves, first and foremost. There was also the upcoming two on one fight Goodwitch promised us next week. I needed to refresh my memory on UHNS and probably HRCN too; I didn't know when they would return but I did not want to be caught off guard. I also had the headmaster's app to work on and school work to keep up with. Thankfully the professors were starting to assign less homework now, at least, but there was still class to attend.

I glanced at my teammates, only now noticing how spread out around the room we were. Normally the girls would be talking amongst themselves now and sometimes one or two would pester- _speak _to me about the day's events.

Some team-building might be worth looking at too. We didn't have an infighting going on but the team was divided over this, even if they didn't notice it. I'd have to mention it to our glorious leader.

My attention turned to the leader in question then and I found the girl looking back at me. She jumped but offered me a hesitant smile.

'_Still feels bad.'_

I was over it now. Still annoyed that she made the decision without consulting any of us and I definitely needed to speak to her about that but at the end of the day, there was no use in staying mad at her over it.

I returned the smile with a smaller one of my own. The girl immediately brightened and I sighed.

There was a lot to do. Even more to worry about and I couldn't do it on my own. Not if I wanted the team as a whole to pull through the trials the next few weeks would throw at us. Maybe it was just the change in our living situation or the fact that we joined a hierarchy, but I had a bad feeling about our near future.

I would need their help. We would need each other. Suddenly, I remember Ozpin's words from the end of our last meeting:

'_Dark times loom ahead. Times that call for cooperation. Times that force us to work with one another, lest we all perish.'_

United, we stand. Divided, we fall.

RWEBY would pull through. I- _We'd _make sure of it.

* * *

Malamig Ink – Scroll OS [Version 3.4.462] © Malamig United. All rights reserved.

Initializing….

Welcome, MelkwegE….

C:\Users\MelkwegE: **vim z:\classMateNotes\thirdYear\UHNS\KristallU;**

…Opening file "KristallU"…

_Uhrglass Kristall. Team UHNS: Third year student. Leader of team UHNS. Lack of foresight caused team issues with mentorship. Quiet. Skilled conversationalist. Hard to surprise. Emotional control? No. Desperation influenced in second year – CFVY joined hierarchy. Panicked? Likely. Too few teams. Powers: Largely unkown, sight based. Motives: Strength. Team based. Weaknesses: Too laid back? Too neutral? Easy to manipulate? Resents HRCN – exploitable._

wq!

Writing file….

Quitting….

C:\Users\MelkwegE: **vim z:\classMateNotes\thirdYear\UHNS\TukkoH;**

…Opening file "TukkoH"…

_Hehku Tukko. Team UHNS: Quiet. Male. Powers: Ability to turn incorporeal. Motives: Unknown. Favors brighter colors. Baggy clothes. Self-conscious? Restrictive power? Unknown. Will observe. Twin one._

wq!

Writing file….

Quitting….

C:\Users\MelkwegE: **vim z:\classMateNotes\thirdYear\UHNS\TukkoN;**

…Opening file "TukkoN"…

_Neste Tukko. Team UHNS: Quiet. Male. Unknown motives. Can turn incorporeal as well. Difference? Will research. Dark color themes. Opposite twin one. Tight clothing. Works together with him? Coincidence? Twin two._

wq!

Writing file….

Quitting….

C:\Users\MelkwegE: **vim z:\classMateNotes\thirdYear\UHNS\SuhocaS;**

…Opening file "SuhocaS"…

_Sjeverni Suhoca. Team UHNS: Hair shifts between purple and black. Power based? Energy? Unknown. Motives: Strength. Powers: Unknown. Edit: Volatile temper. Easily manipulated. Adel success too. Power is light based. Ultraviolet in nature. Aegis counters – note: untested. Also, maybe sun screen._

wq!

Writing file….

Quitting….

C:\Users\MelkwegE: **logout –f;**

Closing session….

Good bye, MelkwegE….

* * *

**A/N: **I'm rolling right along with these. So RWEBY is in a hierarchy for better or for worse and I've got the plot going in maybe half a dozen different directions. Perfect! I'm excited about the next 5-6 chapters especially – I'll be wrapping up canon season one with them… And creating a _cannon_ of my own in the process!

(01/16/2016) Revised.

To all of my reviewers, you keep me going through the week. (Seriously, I'll save the reviews I get so I can read them all at once when I need some inspiration. Nothing gets the muse going like knowing people enjoy the stuff you write!)

**RisingDaemon: **Let's just say you haven't seen all of Enten's notes yet…

**Jackpotdante: **Pyrrha was not Cardin's focus so Jaune was never put into the position where he had to make a choice. Instead, Cardin spent the field trip looking for the guy – unsuccessfully – who punched him across the dining hall. Funny how one person makes such a difference huh?

**Brainthief: **I could write a chapter as a response to your reviews but since I have to save those for that story thing I'm doing, I tried to condense as much as I could! Firstly, I'm glad you like the bittersweet/heart-warming scenes… those are usually added at the last second when I see an opening for one to give the characters a little more depth/history. I love writing them so I'm glad you like reading them! Secondly, I did totally mess up Jaune's name… I'll have to go back and correct that soon- woops. A lot of your questions over hierarchies and mentorships were hopefully answered with this chapter but if you're still curious, the next few chapters should cover any of the ones that this one misses!

If it's my fault you're verbose then I'll keep doing whatever I need to keep doing to make it happen again! Hah! Your observation on my fight scenes is spot on and exactly what I aimed to accomplish with them – good show! If a scene isn't doing some character building, then I usually cut it… not necessarily the _correct _way to write, but it is the way I do it!

**M.K.M: **First off, great name. Not sure why I like it… but I do. Second, as far as complaints go, yours is not only accurate but flattering as well!

**To my guest reviewer: **You make me blush! I love hearing feedback like that (I like all kinds of feedback but I'm admittedly partial to the positive kind)

**EVA-Saiyajin****: **You have one of the hardest names to re-type until I remembered I could copy and paste stuff… Thanks for reading and thanks for your feedback!

Till next time!

-Phailen


	12. Chapter 12

_**This chapter contains mature themes…I think? Is alcohol mature? I'm gonna go with yes. You've been warned!**_

* * *

_One week later, Week 8_

I was startled out of my sleep by a hand on my shoulder. Immediately, I tried to sit up – because I was in an _awkward _position – and cringed when my back protested violently. A grunt escaped my throat and I clutched at the offending area of my body, trying in vain to rub some of the tension from it.

"Yeah, that's what happens when you sleep on a bench."

Yang's voice, I registered as I rubbed at my eyes with my free hand. Where- Was I really on a bench? I was… I was doing something before. Something… _Fuck! _I thought kids were supposed to be capable of sleeping anywhere without any physical repercussions. So much for that assumption. My back was _killing _me.

A pair of hands appeared on my shoulder blades and I stilled, only relaxing when I realized they were trying to help me into a sitting position.

"Oh yeah," Yang said and I thought she sounded distracted. "Blake's here too."

I opened my eyes but only shut them again when my head protested. Apparently I had a headache too – _wonderful_.

"You shouldn't sleep in the library," Blake chided, setting something down next to me on the bench. It smelled good, like _food_. My stomach growled then and I realized how hungry I was, not to mention thirsty.

"Thanks," I muttered, still a little groggy but at least awake now. I remembered I was in the library, researching UHNS and HRCN and also working on the headmaster's app. The programming went well but it was the research that actually brought me here.

The tension between RWEBY and the other two teams in the hierarchy – because HRCN _still _wasn't back – had calmed for the most part. CFVY turned out to be quite friendly and, much to my surprise, I often found myself in the main common area, speaking with either Adel or Daichi about anything and everything under the sun. They were both pretty easy to talk to, but the other two… not so much. Alistair – the boy without any pupils, which was _still _weird to me – didn't seem to like me much and I got the sense that Scarlatina simply didn't speak much at all.

Still, I got along with them and that was more than I expected when we joined the hierarchy last week. The only point of conflict between myself and the second year team was the fact that I wouldn't use their first names and that was actually more of an inside joke than a conflict now… I was comfortable enough with the four students to call them by their given names but I persisted in using their last names only because it was fun to annoy them.

Where CFVY was friendly, UHNS… they weren't _hostile_, per se, but it was a struggle to communicate with any of them. The Kristall boy was jaded and aloof enough that he'd say anything in anyone's presence, even if it was an insult. He gave me the impression that he just didn't care anymore and that didn't sit well with me at all; the fact that CFVY as a whole appeared to be cold to him only made me less willing to associate with him. The twins on UHNS – the Tukko boys – were quiet, very quiet and rather anti-social as well. I'd only seen them in the community common area once or twice outside of RWEBY's interview. It sort of reminded me of myself; once upon a time I wanted nothing to do with people either – I would have been about their age too, if not a little younger.

And then there was Sjeverni Suhoca.

Where her teammates were complacent, this girl was anything but. I'd found that she was almost single handedly responsible for her team's wins in their year and over the week I'd learned that she was _not _pleased about that. Loudly and repeatedly. Several times a day. The girl was headstrong and possessed ambition in spades. She knew where to go for strength and was evidently the only member of UHNS on speaking terms with HRCN, at least that's what Adel told me.

All in all, I did a lot less worrying over the past few days. I was happy for it and I think the girls were too; having to live with me when I was so stressed out and stern probably wasn't fun at all. I was still wary of meeting HRCN, but it was nothing as extreme as it was before RWEBY's meeting.

My head throbbed violently, forcibly pulling me out of my thoughts and I lamented my decision to sleep on the bench. I should have just gone back to the clubhouse. RWEBY received their own, smaller common area off of the main room and we were delighted to find that it possessed four individual bedrooms as well as a large bathroom suite. I didn't technically have a room to myself yet – I decided to let the girls have the rooms – but a couch in our common area was much, _much _more comfortable than a bench in the library.

Oh well, nothing could be done about it now, the only thing I could do was mitigate the consequences of my sleeping location. To that end, I grabbed the glass of water set out for me – _'pain in the_ _front of the head, probably dehydration'_ – and downed it in one go. "Time s'it?"

"Almost midnight," Yang answered, nonchalant.

"You're usually in bed by nine," Blake noted, watching me eat. To anyone else it might have sounded like a statement. I – and probably Yang, too – knew it was more of an accusation. That was how Blake worked; she usually stopped before she outright scolded someone and instead made statements that could be seen as either confrontational or non-confrontational.

Maybe it was a defense mechanism… Arguing as a faunus probably required a certain amount of delicacy that arguing as a human did not, lest she come off as too aggressive and be ostracized for it. Or maybe it was just a quirk of her personality; she only very rarely took a dominant role in conversation, after all.

"Yeah, I know," I said slowly, chewing on the sandwich she brought me. I realized then that it must be personally made – Beacon's dining hall wasn't open this late. "Thanks."

"You said that already," Yang snarked even as Blake smiled mutely. "Did HRCN really drop to third after they shunned UHNS?"

"Yeah," I said, absentmindedly. "UHNS' rating dropped so HRCN's did as well. They recovered, though, because only ten percent of a subordinate team's ranking- well, you know that. It wasn't too big of a loss."

I took another bite of my sandwich and turned to face Yang. "UHNS might have dropped several points but to HRCN-"

She had my Scroll.

Yang had my Scroll.

My Scroll had _everything _on it and it was currently unlocked. It was unlocked and it had my notes in it. My class notes. My team notes. My _life _notes for _both lives_. _Everything _was on that Scroll.

Those notes were my attempt to make sure I didn't _forget_. I had enough written down on my past life to create a novel. Several novels, even… Everything I could remember, I wrote down – songs, homework, friends, cars, events, jobs… _anything_.

The original, handwritten notes were burned now, just to make sure no one found them. The only copies were on my Scroll, which was _usually_ locked with a ten character password and had a manually disabled power button, and on an external memory drive, which was buried in the Forever Fall Forest clearing I used to practice with my Aura.

And Yang was currently perusing an object with one of those copies on it.

"Uh," I stammered, frozen. This never happened before. I never even considered it…

Yang looked up. "What? Hiding something on here," she grinned, following my eyesight. "Were you and the grocer girl _closer _than you admitted?"

I stayed silent, more because she wasn't doing anything with the Scroll now and that was _good_. I just needed a way to get it from her without looking suspicious.

"You were," the blonde's eyes widened and I realized then that my silence was very, _very _poorly timed. The girl started manipulating my Scroll into-

"Yang," I barked, startling the girl. "Give me my Scroll."

The blonde, wide eyed, glanced down at the object and back at me. Wordlessly, she handed the device to me and I felt tension I hadn't even been aware of rush from my shoulders. It was with a relieved sigh that I closed the device, locked it and stuffed it into one of my pockets.

"I wasn't gonna," Yang started slowly, her eyes darting around the library aisle and landing on anything but me. "I wasn't gonna _do _anything with it…"

I shook my head, studiously ignoring Blake as she eyed me from my side. They probably thought I overreacted. And maybe I did. Maybe I was a little too angry but this was worth it. "I didn't lie about the grocer girl. There are just some… some _things _I don't want other people to read on there."

"I never wanted people to find out I was a faunus either," Blake said quietly.

The girl made disguising accusations as comments a form of art.

"This is a little bit bigger-" I paused, because that was not only a qualitative statement, but relative to the individual making it as well. "This is something I _can't _let people find out."

And wasn't that an understatement. My knowledge of Earth was valuable in ways I knew I'd never think of. Ways that people smarter than me could see and exploit. Ways that I remained ignorant to. For example, I was able to leverage my prior experience programming to write code in this world; in doing so I affected the lives of almost every single student at Beacon. Who was to say someone couldn't work backwards from my basic understanding of an atom bomb to create explosives the likes of which Remnant had never seen.

No, the possibilities were too devastating and largely unknown to me. Easier, better and _safer _to keep my past a secret.

"I've got a secret too! You and Blake aren't special," Yang whined. She almost sounded jealous; the thought made me smile.

"I do," the blonde insisted when I shared an amused glance with the cat faunus. "Blake has hers, Enten has his and I have mine!"

"You two know mine," Blake pointed out.

Well if that wasn't a guilt trip then I didn't know what was. And the worst part was that it was _working_. I felt bad that I couldn't share this with them. I… I trusted them. We might not have spent years living, dying and surviving together like some of the older partners but… trust was a two way street.

You had to give it in order to receive it. They were certainly giving it, so where did I get off in refusing to meet them half way?

Yang laughed. "Well mine really isn't much of a _secret_ I guess… Ruby knows about it and so does dad and Uncle Qrow. It's more just really personal. I'll tell you guys… Just maybe when we aren't in a library and it's not almost midnight on a school day…"

I saw Blake turn to me in my peripheral and the blonde in front of me grinned.

"I like this Blake," she said. "She doesn't take no for an answer!"

A wry smile developed on my face under the scrutiny. "I can't," I said, shaking my head. "I… There's no way, this- I shouldn't even have mentioned-"

"Oh come on," Yang insisted. "How bad can it be?"

I shook my head, silent. As much as I wanted to – and _that _was still shocking enough all on its own – I _couldn't _tell them. Knowing I wasn't of this world wouldn't benefit them in any way, shape or form but it _would _put them in danger. Knowledge was power and power was highly sought after – especially in Remnant. I had _a lot _of knowledge, knowledge not even of this world. That… That was worth a lot. Should the wrong person learn… no, it was better to keep them in the dark-

"Worse than mine," Blake asked and I glanced at her to find her attention riveted on me, an intense look in her eyes.

I nodded slowly. "Worse. If I- People might _die_. It's not worth the risk."

"Hold on," Yang cut in, suddenly serious. A severe frown was on her face. "Is someone threatening you? Cause if they are? I'll put them in their place. No questions asked."

They deserved it. They deserved more than I could give them, they deserved to know, to not have my entire life – literally – kept from them.

They didn't know me. The _first _me. The only me they knew was the one that hid half of himself away from the world.

"We can fight," Blake said, drawing me out of my thoughts. The girl was frowning, now.

"Yeah," Yang said, her expression dark. "Just give us a name. No questions asked."

A quiet, sardonic laugh escaped me. "And if I said Ozpin?"

"No questions asked," the blonde reiterated without even stopping to think. I saw Blake nod in my peripheral.

And their insistence didn't make it any easier protecting them. Already I felt bad for keeping my secret, now it was like that guilty feeling weighed twice as much on my shoulders. But still, there was no reason to tell them, it would only get them in trouble. If that meant hiding who I was and always watching what I said around them, then so be it.

I'd put on a false face-

A false face… A disguise. An act. Maybe, just maybe, that was why they did deserve to know after all?

They were ready to potentially throw their lives away for me without knowing any of the why's, where's or how's. _That _was humbling. _That _was loyalty. _That _was more than I was willing to do for either of them and-

And of course it was. They thought they knew me, _all of me_. Both sides. Both lives. They formed a bond with the Remnant-me because that was all they knew. But _I _knew better.

That's what was stopping me, I realized. The Earth-me. The past me. He didn't know anyone here, he'd been hidden away and suppressed for the past seventeen years and only I knew of him. How could I form any lasting bonds, any real friendships if I only put half of myself into it? If I expended so much effort hiding my experience and controlling my reactions?

I stood up, determination to do right by them growing within me. I couldn't let this show of loyalty go without equal reciprocation, not after I'd lied about myself to them. I'd come clean. I'd tell them.

"Come on," I said quietly, my hand drifting down to grasp at my Scroll. A nervous tick. I was nervous.

Hell, I was downright terrified.

But that terror was countered by an equally strong feeling of elation. Of _finally _being able to live. To be myself without worrying about showing too much understanding of things I shouldn't know about, to be around people and not have to worry about speaking of past experiences that hadn't occurred on Remnant.

To be free of worry.

It was terrifying and exciting all at once. I was left more than a little light-headed and rather numb as I walked through Beacon's darkened hallways; there was just enough light to illuminate the floor and the lower half of the walls.

"Where are we going," Yang asked after trailing along in silence for a minute or two. "Should I get Celica? Do we all need to?"

I shook my head, silent, and continued on down the hallway.

* * *

_One hour later, Emerald Forest_

"Okay," I said again, for what felt like the eighth time. I finished my lap around the clearing to which I'd led Blake and Yang. It was far from the school; we were more likely to be found by Grimm all the way out here than by other students or the professors. Still, I wanted to make sure we were not overheard and so I waited until the sounds of the forest's nightlife returned before I visually confirmed no one was around us.

Normal forest-life sounds. No sight of any intruders or eavesdroppers. Good.

"Okay," I said, stopping in front of my partners. _Partners_. I hadn't been doing them justice. But no more.

"Okay," Yang parroted, an exasperated look on her face. "You want to tell us what's up now? What's this big-mmf"

"No words," I muttered, removing my hand from her mouth. I brought out my Scroll with the other one and quickly went about unlocking it. The blonde started to say something but I shot her a look and thankfully she fell silent. She was displeased, I could tell, and I didn't blame her; hopefully that would change once she figured out that this was all worth it.

I opened a simple drawing tool and froze, suddenly, my finger hovering over the blank, white canvas. Was I really going to do this? The moment of truth – literally – was upon me, it wasn't too late, I could still lie-

_No. _No. I wasn't going to talk myself out of this now. Certainly not after I'd led them all the way out here and _definitely_ not after the conversation in the library.

I was going make things right, for better or for worse, _tonight_.

A heavy exhale accompanied the motions of my finger when it started writing out a sentence. I paused again part way through, when I'd written 'I am from' on the Scroll, but forced myself to finish the sentence.

'I am from another dimension.'

Five little words. Five little words that held so much power, so much sway over my life, over my actions. Those five little words defined me.

'_Hopefully,'_ I thought as I passed them the Scroll, _'not for much longer.'_

They both stilled when they read the sentence and I saw their eyes flicker over it several times, like they were trying to re-read it just to make sure they'd gotten it right. Yang even glanced up at me once, like she wanted to make sure I was still there. I stood in front of them, silent, through it all.

Then, perhaps twenty seconds after I first handed them the Scroll, Yang looked up and opened her mouth to speak.

"No words," I said quickly, before she could say anything. I pointed to the Scroll, now in Blake's trembling hands. "Use that."

She pulled out her own instead – the cat faunus was still riveted on the message, her eyes narrowed – but I shook my head and grabbed the blonde's wrist when I saw what she was opening.

"Text messages can be tracked," I said lowly, prompting the blonde to huff in frustration and throw me an exasperated look. The look in her eyes was intense, her pupils smaller than normal.

But still, she complied. After another ten seconds she held up her own Scroll, a quickly scrawled message ready for me to read:

'ARE YOU INSANE?'

"Sometimes I wonder," I laughed dryly, nudging Blake so that I could get my Scroll back. That message had been on there a little too long for my liking… the longer those five little words were on the screen, the more likely it was someone else would be able to see them.

The cat faunus jumped violently and quickly cast her eyes about the clearing. She focused first upon Yang, then Beacon in the distance, then me. No words escaped her though, a good thing, but she also didn't make any effort to write a message; she just stared.

"Clearly," Yang snarked as she fiddled with her Scroll again. I used the opportunity to take mine back from Blake and the girl let it go without complaint, still staring. I erased 'I am from another dimension' and promptly sighed in relief.

"Hey," the blonde called, drawing my attention back to her. She was holding her Scroll aloft, another message drawn on its surface:

'Are you feeling alright?'

I frowned. She didn't believe me; Yang didn't believe me and… that hurt. I was expecting the blind acceptance she displayed in the library when she thought I was being blackmailed… I guess this claim _was _a little more far-fetched though.

'I am telling the truth.'

The blonde still looked doubtful after she read my message. My frown deepened just as Blake held up her own Scroll.

'Prove it.'

Prove it. Proof… right. That was fair. This was supposed to be impossible, wasn't it? _I _thought it was one huge dream when I was born. I couldn't expect them to just blindly accept the claim without anything to back it up.

So… the proof. What could I use?

My knowledge of Earth wouldn't help. For all they knew, I could be making the entire thing up. Hell, _I _certainly wouldn't believe me in their position… What did I still have from my past life? Nothing physical, obviously. Mental then… my programming! But they already knew about that. They didn't know I learned it in another life and I had no-

My notes! My notes were dated. All of them were. From the ones I took as a three year old to the ones I took just earlier today.

I nodded and manipulated my Scroll into showing me some of my encrypted files. The password – which managed to belatedly remind me that Yang never would have seen anything important anyway – I gave it was accepted readily and I impatiently waited for the algorithm to do its work.

The device presented me with a list of files a few moments later and I opened one of them; it was a picture of some of my handwritten notes from when I was six. Wordlessly, I handed the Scroll to them and they leaned in to look at it so quickly that they nearly knocked their heads together.

A smile pulled at the edge of lips. They were both interested, I could tell that easily. There was still some doubt in them, evident in the minute frowns on their faces. That, I realized retrospectively, was completely warranted and should have been something I expected. Still, there was no screaming or shouting or running away or any of the other unrealistic scenarios my paranoid brain conjured up for my enjoyment on the way over here.

I watched Blake's eyebrows climb progressively farther up her face as she read, intrigued. She was usually one to show little to no emotion on her face while Yang, who was for the most part staying expressionless, was typically the exact opposite. If the blonde was feeling something, you would know it – only Ruby had her beat out in expressiveness.

They scanned the document for perhaps thirty seconds in total before the cat faunus pulled away and started to write a message out on her Scroll.

'More?'

So I showed them. I showed them more of my notes on programming. I showed them my efforts to remember the songs I'd known. I even showed them my ramblings and theories on how it was I got here to begin with.

I showed them all of it.

Throughout it all, their expressions remained supremely interesting to me. Never before had I seen Blake so open and Yang so closed off. It was remarkable, how much the dawning truthfulness of my secret affected them.

I wondered how I would react? I knew I was fairly hard to startle or surprise, given the fact that I had something like twice as much life experience as they did, but I hoped something as big as an entirely new dimension would at least manage to make my mouth drop. Maybe I should focus a little more on expressing emotion in conversation, open up a little, instead of keeping myself so closed off. I'd have to watch Ruby and learn from her – the girl was open by default and there was no better way to learn than by watching someone so earnest.

"Wow," Yang whispered. "I j-… Wow. _Wow._"

She plopped down onto the ground at the base of a tree, utterly silent. It was slightly unnerving, to be honest. I expected an explosion from her the most; yelling, shouting and the like. This was a Yang I did not know how to handle.

Movement at my side attracted my attention and I found Blake trying to hand my Scroll back to me. I accept the device with a nod of thanks and the girl returned the gesture.

She was still surprised, I could tell that in the way her eyes were slightly wider than normal and the way they darted restlessly about my face. Her hands were restless, too.

"So," I prompted slowly. There was an awkward air descending upon us now and I didn't like it at all.

"Uh," Blake started. "Wow?"

Yang laughed, though it sounded forced, immediately after that. "So… nice night right?"

I grunted and crossed my arms, displeased. Maybe I should have expected this… Hell, I _probably _should have expected this.

Luckily, I knew just the way to get them to loosen up… and it'd been something like seventeen years since I'd partaken.

"Have either you been drunk before?"

* * *

_(Even) later that night_

"This is such a bad idea," Blake hissed again, clutching the bottle of soda to her chest. It was lime flavored – or at least its label said so – and the closest thing I could find to Mountain Dew in Remnant. It would have to work. I wasn't about to break my dry spell with anything less than my favorite drink, after all.

"You'll enjoy it," I returned quietly. Beacon's resplendent hallways carried our voices remarkably well and I didn't want the effort I'd put into getting the whiskey-flavored liqueur in my hand to go to waste. The homeless man we found was incredibly eager to help me out, given I'd offered to buy him a handle as well, and the entire thing went off without a hitch. He seemed a pretty experienced drinker too – he was able to piece together what I wanted from my half formed memories.

It made me wonder how often he bought alcohol for minors.

At any rate, I now had a half-gallon of the closest thing Remnant had to Southern Comfort inside a bottle that formerly held tea. Couldn't exactly bring a bottle of alcohol onto Beacon's campus, after all.

Blake still looked uncomfortable but she vehemently resisted anything that took her out of her comfort zone so I wasn't too surprised by that. Yang, at least, looked hesitantly curious. Alcohol didn't have the same negative stigma it did on Earth but it was still forbidden on Remnant to those under the age of eighteen. I was actually surprised the blonde hadn't had any before.

"Can't believe that guy just…helped us," Yang muttered. "He had to know…"

I laughed quietly. "And he probably didn't care. He got some whiskey out of it and we got our liqueur. Everybody wins."

The blonde only shrugged in response and it was at that point we reached our hierarchy's clubhouse. That brought worries – most revolving around HRCN – to my mind that I didn't want to focus on right now so I banished them to the deepest levels of my subconscious. There was a time for plotting and planning; right now I was about to break a seventeen year abstinence and I was _not _going to have any negativity bring me down.

No one was in our shared, grandiose chamber, but that was to be expected given it was nearing three in the morning on a Thur- _Friday_, I guess. Although the upper years did not have classes today, it was still technically a school night. I was learning that CFVY still treated Friday like it was a school day and, to a lesser extent, UHNS did the same with their two days off. It made me wonder what HRCN did on their three off days.

"Where to," Yang asked as I crossed the chamber and reached the door to RWEBY's common room. She hefted the ice she was carrying into the same arm that carried a bottle of soda identical to Blake's.

"Blake's room," I said, whispering. The girls' rooms were arrayed in a circle around the common area and the cat faunus' was in between Weiss' and Yang's. Given the Schnee heiress was a notoriously heavy sleeper and it had the blonde's room between it and the hall, Blake's room was the best bet.

"I didn't agree to this," the black haired girl muttered but she followed us into her room all the same. "Are we even allowed to have this on campus?"

"We're not allowed to have it at all, Blake." The girl groaned and I bit back a grin. Where she was reluctant, I was excited. It'd been _so _long and I hadn't even realized how much I missed having a good drink until earlier today, when I let them in on my secret.

Because it _definitely _would have been helpful for that conversation.

Still, alcohol or not, I knew that it was a good decision, telling them. I'd been on a high ever since I got that off my chest and that elated feeling continued even now. A laugh escaped me as I spun to face them.

"This is gonna be _great!_"

That said, I made some room on Blake's desk for the items we acquired. It took some doing, mostly because books covered nearly every flat surface in the room – but I managed it under the cat faunus' watchful eye. That done, I went about filling the cups we'd pilfered from the dining hall with a little ice. Some liqueur came next, only a fifth of the glass – didn't want to overdo it considering it was _technically_ my first time and certainly theirs – and finally, the lime soda.

"I've had beer before," Yang admitted, looking down into the slightly darker bright green liquid. "Is this like that?"

I shook my head. "More purified. Personally I think you get less hangovers with the hard stuff too."

Blake took a sip of her drink and immediately made a face.

"I know you can't even taste it," I snarked.

She threw me a dirty look but slowly took another drink all the same.

Me: 1. Blake: 0.

We fell into silence then and I took the opportunity to observe Blake's room for the first time.

Its walls were a muted shade of burgundy, just like the rest of RWEBY's suite, but I could tell the faunus made an effort to make it her own. On the wide window that rested opposite the door, she'd hung dark purple drapes and a small rug of the same color rested in the center of her room. Her bed was shoved into a corner, the blankets possessing the same generic red color of all school-provided bedsheets, and her desk sat along the wall closest to the door. It was on said desk that our ingredients rested.

And then there were the books.

They were _everywhere_. There was absolutely no way she unpacked all of them in our shared dorm room because there definitely wouldn't have been enough room for them. She had a filled bookcase on the wall opposite her bed and the space on top of her dresser was covered in literary material too. Her desk had a small spot cleared in the center of it, presumably so she could use it to write, but otherwise books took up all of its real estate as well.

"Your room matches your personality," I said a few moments later, after I'd sipped at my drink. It was just as good as I remembered!

"Yeah," Yang agreed, looking up from where she'd been staring into her cup. The blonde looked wary of it now; it made me wonder just what her experience with beer entailed. "It's… It's all Blakey."

"Thanks," the girl said quietly, casting an eye about her room. "I like it. It… It feels like home."

"Where's home," I asked. Yang, Ruby and Weiss all spoke of their families and their houses somewhat regularly during our near nightly talks, but it occurred to me then that I'd never heard Blake do the same.

The girl shook her head mutely and I frowned. She must not have a family, or at least not know of them. It struck me then, as the realization often did in the face of Blake's struggles, how lucky Phoebe was to have mom and me. A lot of faunus had much, much less.

"You'll have to come visit over the holidays," I said, nonchalant. They were still months away but Remnant, much like Earth, offered its students a few weeks of vacation during winter. I knew by the look on her face that Blake probably expected to spend them alone.

"Yeah, us too," Yang crowed. Her drink rested on the dresser behind her, forgotten and perched precariously on the edge of the wooden surface.

The faunus shifted and a sad smile spread across her lips. "You don't have-"

"Blake," I interrupted because I knew where she was going. I used to do the _exact _same thing. "I just trusted you with something I've _never _told anyone before. Do you really think I don't want you around?"

Yang snorted. "You are pretty- oh! Hey! I need to tell you guys _my _secret!"

"One second Yang," I said, reaching for my cup. The blonde made a sour face and I got the feeling she _really _wanted to share. Luckily for her, this wouldn't take long. Blake still looked uncertain and I just wanted her to understand that she wasn't a burden. "First, I propose a toast: to family!"

Blake blinked and looked back down at her drink, her shoulders drooping.

A frown grew on my face almost immediately because that wasn't the reaction I was looking for. I expected something more along the lines the happiness or at least neutrality; melancholy was-

Oh. She probably misunderstood and, retrospectively, I realized my wording _was_ pretty ambiguous. I meant it to mean that she – and Yang – was family to me now and-

And _wow. _I actually meant that. She was family to me – amazing what sharing something personal can do to a relationship. I wonder if she felt this way when first I and then Yang accepted her despite her faunus nature? This was a powerful, heady feeling. It was addictive and I wanted to revel in it. Trust this deep was something I hadn't felt in a long, _long _time. Even from my mother, even from Phoebe.

I trusted Blake and Yang with my life.

The realization left me breathless and shocked; I probably would have stood there looking like an idiot if not for the blonde herself appearing at my side. Her presence served to shake me out of my thoughts and I realized belatedly that Blake was still propped up against her desk, her eyes focused on her drink.

Did she really think so little of herself? Did she really think that _I _thought so little of her? To exclude her so callously?

I glanced at Yang and arched an eyebrow; moving toward the faunus shortly thereafter. I heard the blonde move to follow me and Blake glanced up at us just as I put my free arm around her shoulder; Yang followed suit and placed hers' around the faunus' waist.

"To family," I repeated softly, holding my drink aloft.

"To family," Yang echoed, equally as quiet. It was a far cry from her usual boisterous volume.

Blake gasped, quietly enough that I almost missed it, and sucked in a shaky breath; her eyes were darting between the two of us erratically and I noted absentmindedly that it was a good thing she'd been drinking – the way her hands were shaking made me certain she would have split her drink otherwise.

"To," she started, breathless, only cut herself off with a shuddering gasp, almost like she was about to start sobbing. She closed her eyes and visibly forced herself to calm down. I did not know if it was reflexive or not, but she placed her head on my shoulder and her free arm around Yang's waist. "To family," she finished, a watery smile on her face.

'_To family,' _I thought as I drank. It was a good toast.

"This is good," Yang said, drawing me from my thoughts. She sounded surprised... which was strange because I thought my drinks were always good. I made to tell her just that but the words died in my mouth when I saw the blonde throw half the liquid in her glass down.

"Slow down, slugger," I laughed. There wasn't _a lot _of alcohol in these drinks but at 100 proof, a shot or two would really got a long way.

She threw me a cheeky grin and instead downed the rest of the drink in one go.

A short bark of laughter, echoed by a surprised snort from the cat faunus at my side, escaped me at the girl's audacity. The mistake of a new drinker – too much, too soon. I did the same thing, once upon a time and I _still _couldn't drink lemonade to this day.

I didn't even want to _think _about the smell of vodka.

The blonde disengaged from our pseudo-group hug and made her way across the room, toward the alcohol. I was content to let her try her hand at mixing the drink. It wasn't like it was complicated or anyth-

"Okay," I cut in, disbelief coloring my voice, when I saw her pour _far, far _too much alcohol into her next drink. I drank the rest of mine quickly and hurried over to her, stopping the girl before she poured any more. Instead, I split the liqueur already in her glass with mine.

"Oh come on," she whined.

"No," I said resolutely. Even split in half, we each had about a third of the cup filled with alcohol. This one was going to be _heavy_.

"You're such an old man."

"Yeah, I guess so," I laughed and that caused the blonde's face to become neutral again, like it'd been in the clearing earlier. It occurred to me then that I still didn't know their thoughts on my first life but I was somewhat hesitant to ask. The relaxed air between the three of us was comfortable and I didn't want to ruin that.

Luckily, Blake correctly read the frown on my face.

"You have a secret, Yang," she prompted from across the room. It drew the blonde back into the conversation and caused the expressionless look on her face to be replaced by a large grin; I was thankful for the faunus' interruption. I wanted them to realize I was the same Enten they'd always known, just with a little less pressure on his shoulders. A little less to hide. More _me_, less… less disguised.

"Right! It's about my mom," she started, her grin fading. "And it's… it's not really happy, actually… She uh, she disappeared when I was young. Real young, I mean, before Ruby entered the equation even."

She paused and contemplated her drink before drinking a mouthful of it and promptly gagging. A grin spread across my face even as the dolt nearly spit out the liquid.

"And you wanted double that," I said, more than a little smug. The blonde finally managed to keep the liquid down and immediately went into a coughing fit. It _was _pretty strong; a grimace was on my face after I took a drink from my own cup.

'_Last time I let her make a drink,' _I thought sourly as I moved back to the desk and poured more soda into my cup to replace what I'd drank. It would balance out… eventually.

"That's awful," Yang spat, clutching at her throat. Her drink was again perched precariously on the edge of Blake's dresser. "Tastes as bad as _beer!_"

"Alcohol usually only tastes good after you're drunk," I muttered from behind the rim of my cup. The bitterness of the liqueur was finally being mellowed out by the soda. I sloshed the liquid around, both to speed up the process and preoccupy myself while Yang caught her breath.

"So," I said after watching her make overly exaggerated gagging motions for perhaps thirty seconds. "Your mom?"

The blonde shook her head one last time – _'Drama queen.' _– and cleared her throat. "She left. She didn't go missing on a mission. She didn't get killed protecting people. She just… _left_. I want- I _need _to find her."

A lengthy silence fell over us and I wasn't sure what I could say to break it. Thankfully, Blake stepped up to the challenge.

"Huntress," the girl asked. Yang nodded silently and the cat faunus continued: "Do you know why?"

Another shake of her head and the blonde decided it was time to take a long pull from her drink. She grimaced again and I decided to take mercy on her.

"Put some more soda in it. And make Blake another while you're at it."

"I can make my own," the cat faunus said, still next to her desk. She eyed the blonde's cup as Yang reached her with a wary look on her face – it was a murky brown color and struggling to make its way back to lime green as more soda was added to it. I laughed when the girl in question stuck her tongue out at Blake and snatched the cup away from her anyway.

"I can make a drink," Yang said, blowing another raspberry at the faunus and plunging her hand into the bag of ice.

Blake rolled her eyes but didn't say anything, only watching silently as the blonde went about messily mixing the soda and the liqueur together on her desk. I saw her hand twitch every time a drop of it hit the polished wooden surface and laughed again. The absurd thought of the cat faunus dodging drops of water flashed through my mind and my eyes drifted up to the girl's bow.

"I've never seen your ears," I muttered, surprised. I'd known about them for weeks, months even, but never before had I _seen _them. "For all we know you could be lying about being a faunus. Maybe you're a normal human girl, Blake? Tricking your friends into believing things that aren't true…"

The girl scoffed as she grabbed Yang's arm to keep her from spiking the drink too much and quickly got her cup away from the blonde. She shuffled closer to me then, eying the liquid – a little stronger than I made it the first time – distrustfully.

Apparently Yang was over her hesitation. Alcohol would do that.

"That's because I haven't taken off my bow," she informed me.

"No," I returned, a grin appearing on my face as a memory came to me. "But you have taken off your pants."

"What," Yang _screamed_, surprised. I winced because _wow_… we might wake Weiss up after all.

"Damnit Yang," I hissed. "Quieter."

"Well _sorry_," the blonde scoffed. "I'm just surprised the two of you have been doing the nasty right under our noses!"

"We're not!"

"Yeah," I said, glancing at the faunus – the girl was red faced now. "Blake just decided to flash-"

"I did not _decide _to flash you!"

"Details," Yang demanded.

"It's not-"

"_Details!"_

Blake huffed and sipped at her drink, silent. She edged away from the blonde and, inadvertently or not, closer to me.

I grinned at her. "_I _could tell-"

"No." The faunus' voice was flat and I knew then that I wouldn't be telling this story. She sighed and rubbed at her eyes, her cheeks still a little redder than usual. "I was changing in the room, he came in, he saw me without pants on."

A raucous laugh escaped me because that was _hardly _the entire story. "You missed the part where you threw a book at my head."

Yang erupted into laughter and Blake flushed again.

"You didn't react! At all! You just shrugged," the faunus said hotly. "What kind of boy-"

She stopped abruptly, her mouth frozen halfway through her sentence and her eyes searching my face. Silence stretched between us for several moments.

I sighed.

"You know what kind," I said quietly, lamenting the heady feeling of alcohol as it fled from me in the face of this conversation. "I didn't mean any offense…"

The faunus shook her head. "I… I understand, I think. I mean, I understand abstrently."

"Abtrently," Yang asked, a grin blooming on her face. "Abstrec- Abstractly?"

I'd have to watch how much they drank, if they were mispronouncing words already. We'd barely made it through half the bottle – speaking of which, it was long past time I made another one for myself…

"You know what I meant," Blake said sourly as I moved by her. The blonde only shrugged and that prompted the faunus to sigh. "I can't understand because I don't have another life."

"Cats actually have nine," I inserted into the conversation as I fished around for ice.

Yang burst into giggles and Blake's hand came up to rub at her eyes again. "If I may _continue?_

"What it was like," the girl said when no one interrupted her further. "How did you know? Do you have memories from the other… the other you?"

At long last, we arrived at the purpose for this conversation. The entire reason I pulled them along with me to get the alcohol and the result of my decision to share with them what was likely my greatest secret. I hadn't thought about how I wanted to approach this discussion in the hours since the secret first broke – I probably should have but it was just so much easier to let future me deal with worries like that…

Well, future me was here now and present me was regretting past me's stupidity.

Oh well.

"Yes, I remember my other life," I started slowly, deciding to just answer her questions to begin with. "Most memories are faded now – time does that – but I still recall big events with almost perfect clarity. Little random memories too, sometimes… standing on a stage, walking on a sidewalk… But most of it is just knowledge that something happened to me, no actual memories.

"As for how I knew," I continued when they both stayed silent. "I didn't. Not at first anyway. I thought I was back on my planet. Back on Earth. It wasn't until I saw a faunus that I knew I was dead wrong. That I was somewhere else entirely. Remnant."

"There were no faunus," Yang murmured, surprise written into every inch of her expression.

"Were you… human," Blake asked almost immediately after.

"No, there were no faunus on Earth," I said to Yang first. Then, to Blake: "Yes, I was human just like the rest of the people on Earth."

"Earth," Yang repeated, an odd look on her face. She frowned then and took another drink. Silence descended over us then – it made me uneasy.

"I'm still the same me that you've always known," I continued and I thought I detected some desperation in my voice. It might have been panic for all I knew – my mind was a mess of thoughts right now. "I might be a little less serious – that secret was… it took _a lot _out of me to hide it. I only noticed that once I'd told you…"

I shook my head. "It was like hiding half of myself away. I moved from one objective to the next without ever putting any thought into actually _living_. I… I had my moments, moments where I let loose and relaxed but mostly I just… I just existed. Everything was treated like a goal, like a new objective that I needed to accomplish. It kept me distracted. Made it easier to deceive people when I had something to work toward; something to focus on."

"You've always been driven by your goals," Yang muttered. "Protecting your family. Getting stronger. Finishing Aegis. It was like you were a robot, going from point A to point B… you never let loose… It made you hard to get along with. At first, I mean. You had a giant stick up your ass back then."

"No hard feelings," I said dryly when she threw me a grin. "I know I can be difficult. Too serious. Too realistic. Too paranoid. It was a product of living a half-life; I gave myself goals and objectives to meet to forget about the other me. It helped me coup with not being able to show that part of myself – instead I just used the old me to further my goals and the new me – Enten – became a front."

I grabbed my liqueur and impulsively downed the entire thing. I'd been wasting my life away, ignoring the better parts of it, for seventeen years now. It was time I started living.

"So," Blake started, her eyes just a tad glassier than usual as she studied me. "You hid away the old you because it would have been strange for you to know about things you shouldn't? Things like this? Like alcohol?"

"Yes, and I think I may spent so much effort doing it that I forgot to live in the meantime."

It was a sobering thought, that I threw myself into meeting my goals to such an extent that I never stopped to enjoy life along the way. But no more.

"I plan on changing that now," I said as the alcohol started to hit me. A grin started to grow on my face as I made my way to Blake's desk, stumbling the last few steps. "I think it's time I start living my life."

* * *

_Is it still night? No, no it's morning, Friday, Week 8_

Professor Goodwitch kept her word – the whole of team RWEBY now waited on the dueling stage for our opponents. Two of our number were awake, alert and ready but the other three…

"I can't _believe _you would do this," Weiss hissed again. It was probably the eighth or ninth time she expressed her… disapproval over our actions. "This is the _first _time UHNS will see us in action and I _don't _want to make a bad impression!"

"Yeah, yeah," I muttered, rubbing my eyes. I didn't have a headache and moving didn't make me nauseous, several glasses of water saw to that. Still, this wasn't going to be fun. My mind was already starting to slip and my vision was starting to take a little too long to focus.

Blake stifled a yawn next to me and Weiss huffed. As far as the Schnee heiress knew, we just stayed up all night – she knew nothing of the alcohol and I was going to keep it that way until the dueling class was over and done with. It wasn't that I thought she would think less of me – of us – because I was fairly certain wine was familiar to her, given her position as heiress; it was more the fact that she would become even more irate if she learned that Blake, Yang and I were drunk not even two hours earlier.

I nudged the faunus with my shoulder. "Tired?"

She scoffed and Yang chortled on her other side.

Tired we may be, I still felt it was worth it. I was happier than I'd been a long time. More carefree.

Yeah, definitely worth it.

"No one," Goodwitch asked, attracting my attention. She sounded disappointed but certainly not surprised. Students had stopped volunteering to face RWEBY pairs a long time ago. We usually just ended up facing each other. The singles' class, however, was a different story all together. Once our still superior teamwork was taken out of the equation, RWEBY members had the same potential as our classmates. We were still doing well, but we certainly didn't have the reputation we did in the pairs' dueling class.

Yang's loss – her first – last week to Pyrrha proved that. The red head was scary good, good enough that the blonde was unable to land a single blow on her – something I thought would _never_ happen given her Semblance. But no, the only time Yang scored a hit was when she found a shield in her fists' way.

A flash of green caught my attention and I glanced at the giant scoreboard that kept track of the students' win-loss records. It was currently displaying the statistics for all the first years…

_Pyrrha Nikos: 5-0_

_Dove Bronzewing: 4-1_

_Lie Ren: 4-1_

_Yang Xiao Long: 4-1_

_Ye'lo Malamig: 4-1_

_Weiss Schnee: 4-1_

It went on for a while but I did not put much stock into the numbers. It was too early in the semester for them to accurately reflect the strength of Beacon's first year students. There was also the matter of team RWEBY's horrible luck in opponents while people like Dove had only fought students that really weren't all too impressive.

Case in point, I was fairly certain I could beat Dove Bronzewing but my record – _2-3_ – indicated that he would wipe the floor with me.

"Very well then," Goodwitch said, clearly unhappy. "Perhaps _three_ teams will be able to take on RWEBY?"

That caused some murmuring to erupt among the students, CFVY and UHNS among them. They caused quite a stir when the second and third year teams entered the dueling hall – enough that Professor Goodwitch announced their presence and RWEBY's new position as part of their hierarchy. Evidently we were only the second team to accept a hierarchy offer. EMRD accepted one from LIMN before us.

It was going… well, all things considered. We moved into the clubhouse and got settled in pretty quickly; our two senior teams were easy enough to live with and if we didn't want to see them then we could just remain in RWEBY's own personal common area.

HRCN hadn't returned yet but other than that somewhat ominous cloud over our heads, RWEBY was doing well. And that fact made me reconsider the choice to join the hierarchy and my stance on it, maybe, just maybe, this could turn out in our favor.

"Opener #4, freezer burn," Ruby said, drawing me back to the situation at hand. Yang, hopping from one foot to another, turned to me and started shadow boxing with Aegis. Her enthusiasm served to get my own blood pumping – adrenaline that was much needed given the lack of sleep – and I braced Aegis with my free hand to allow her the ability to actually hit the weapon. Her fists made small clangs as they impacted the unyielding metal.

We had several openers, ranging from an all-out charge to a full retreat. Number four happened to be my own; I would send Aegis into the largest cluster of enemies and release a blast of my Semblance. It was good for disorganizing opponents and absolutely devastating when they grouped up – as teams were wont to do – before the duel started. That was the idea, anyway, a lot of these strategies were untested. It was good that we were finally getting to fight as an entire team. Good experience – it made me eager to tag along with CFVY on one of their missions and eventually go on one of our own.

Hopefully Adel would invite us along soon.

"DMND," Goodwitch said, nodding as the four students approached the stage and their Aura meters appeared overhead. Well that was a desperate move. DMND was currently dead last in class standings; maybe they volunteered to improve their image for the teams that came to watch? The only spectator we had this time was someone from CHCL; CFVY and UHNS notwithstanding, of course.

"OPUL and… CRDL."

Well, there it was. Three teams. Three teams who were below us in ranking, actually. I was kind of surprised and somewhat disappointed that EMRD, JYDE, JNPR or SAFR didn't volunteer.

Our opponents lined up on the stage opposite us, not together, but in three separate clusters. That was good – there was no communication going on – hopefully that would stay the same throughout the match.

Goodwitch made a disapproving sound but did not say anything. She was one to teach by experience. Rarely did she explicitly tell her students what to do and she would only make suggestions after the duels were over.

Still, I was fairly certain she had mentioned teamwork before…quite often, in fact.

'_Somewhere in the neighborhood of every dueling class. Several times over…'_

The practice hall stilled when the blonde professor finished her now-familiar pre duel speech and…

"Begin!"

Aegis was rocketing forward just as soon as the last syllable left her mouth. I jumped back even as the shield reached our opponents while Weiss created a large layer of ice on the ground and Yang jumped up into the air. I channeled my Aura and released a powerful blast of my Semblance near the students who were charging us. It sent most of them sprawling, though two of them were far enough away from the epicenter that they continued unhindered. OPUL entirely refused to charge so it made it easier to hit the remaining two teams who did.

My feet touched the ground some distance behind Weiss as the girl finished her ice. Immediately the white haired girl joined Ruby, Blake and I just as Yang hit the ground with a gunfire-enhanced punch.

"Back wall. Silent cataclysm," Ruby whispered.

White, vision-obscuring mist blanketed the stage just as Aegis returned to my arm. I immediately brought it up in front of me just as the first shouts of dismay reached us and the sounds of our opponents Semblances echoed throughout the hall. Some of them nearly hit us but given our opponents' lack of sight, they were either easily avoided or easily blocked.

As one, team RWEBY moved left, toward the back wall. We were quick and there was little need to be quiet over the racket the other students on stage were making. Some of them appeared to have some luck at clearing out the mist while others were just wasting energy.

I kept my eyes open as I moved with the group, positioning myself roughly between them and our opponents. The mist wasn't _completely_ obscuring but it limited visibility-

A flash of movement to the left attracted my attention and I slammed Aegis into the girl. She staggered, surprised and clutching at an already purpling nose, even as I retreated and Crescent Rose caught her on the neck; Myrtenaster followed quickly with a wicked looking blow on her back.

The girl's body contorted awkwardly and Blake finished her off with a downward slash of Gambol Shroud. She dropped to the floor and groaned, clearly out of it.

It all happened in about a second, maybe two.

Shouts of dismay erupted from our student audience, probably at seeing the girl's health bar drop to nothing.

RWEBY took a second to regroup and continued on. We were nearing the side of the stage where our opponents started and the mist – while noticeably thinner – was still-

"Spearhead: Bruiser! Back-up: Freezerburn," Ruby yelled, forgoing any attempt at stealth now that someone had cleared away the mist with what felt like a gust of wind.

I moved forward without hesitation, toward a cluster of four – the team that didn't charge. Blake shadowed me while Yang and Weiss – I could only assume – flanked us.

The team saw us coming but they were clearly surprised by the mist's disappearance and our position behind them. They weren't able to recover fully before we reached them. At least they had stayed together though they would have been better off staying near the other teams. They were alone on this side of the stage with us.

Aegis was brought to bear, blocking a panicked attack with a chain and a sword together. I buffeted the floor with my Semblance and unbalanced them – considering they hadn't separated yet, it was quite easy to get all of them.

Blake darted around my off side and brought Gambol Shroud – unsheathed, now – down on the chain wielding boy. On our sides, Weiss and Yang singled out opponents and started to make quick work of them. They were arguably our best one-on-one fighters – Ruby did well to have them single out opponents like that.

Our other seven remaining opponents were only just becoming aware of our position and most of them were across the stage, near where RWEBY started. It struck me just how dispersed they were compared to us then, even in the midst of battle I registered the fact that they were all ten feet apart or more. All of RWEBY's members were maybe five feet apart, at the most.

I collapsed Aegis and sent two Semblance enhanced jabs to the sword wielding boy's face. He blocked the first one with a wince and took the second one to the chin. Even as he staggered back, I turned and managed to grab the chain boy's wrist before he could retaliate against Blake.

Her opponent now defenseless, Blake spun in a tight, controlled circle and landed half a dozen blows on the boy's torso in the space of a second. He fell, groaning, and I released his wrist. Spinning just as Aegis finished expanding, I leaped in front of my team and brought the shield up to block an odd combination of what I assumed were Semblance attacks.

Explosions. Energy beam-looking things. Even some wind. My arm shook and a few stray bullets _may _have gotten passed me but I weathered it all as the sounds of battle died down behind me.

Our remaining opponents – team CRDL and most of team DMND – hesitated in their charge as Ruby, Yang, Weiss and Blake regrouped behind me.

"Ice flower," Ruby whispered in the silence of the hall. She spun Crescent Rose with a flourish and brought its barrel to bear even as Weiss summoned a glyph in front of it.

CRDL and the remainder of DMND broke free from their hesitation then, charging forward, battle cries on their lips.

"Hold," Ruby said to us as she fired. "Hoooold… BLITZ!"

We met their charge with one of our own. Ruby and Weiss had managed to slow or trap two students from DMND – the two bullies, in fact – so there were five of them and five of us.

I went for Cardin but redirected when Weiss slide forward, easily surpassing me, and engaged him. Blake went after Russel. Ruby, the nameless boy from DMND. Yang took on Sky Lark, the weakest member of CRDL – he probably wouldn't last long.

That left me with Dove Bronzewing.

'_I guess I get to see if he deserves to be at the top of the standings,'_ I thought as I swung my right fist forward. The boy easily side stepped the blow and brought his longsword up in a vertical cut.

A wince flashed across my face when I was unable to avoid the attack. Belatedly, I expanded Aegis.

'_That'll teach me to get cocky.'_

The next attack was blocked and I send a blast of Semblance at his feet. He jumped to the side, only catching a small portion of the blow. My follow up shield slam had to be aborted when he lashed out at my weak side with his weapon. I danced back.

"Bumblebee! Mario!"

I paused for a split second, surprised, and barely managed to shy away from another blow because of it. Still, the sword clipped my thigh and I grunted in frustration, powering forward with my Semblance and slamming Aegis into the boy. He stumbled back and I chanced a look at the battlefield.

Yang was running toward Blake – the girl was back-pedaling rapidly, holding her side, and Russel was hounding her relentlessly. I forced down the urge to help her and instead kept searching, well aware that Bronzewing was probably back on his feet now and, additionally, our two frozen opponents were likely about to reintroduce themselves too. Weiss' ice, while strong, wasn't solid enough to trap someone for long.

Speaking of the Schnee heiress, she was currently engaged in a fast paced melee battle with Cardin. The boy looked tired and Weiss was favoring one leg but all-in-all, she looked to be in control-

Ruby flew past me and I turned, panicked, to track her progress through the air. My worries faded when I found that her dueling with Bronzewing rather than lying on the ground. For a second there I thought her opponent-

"Frontier. Go!"

I drew a blank for that particular command and at the worst possible time too. The younger girl had so many code names now it was no small wonder _she _didn't get them mixed up too.

A flash of movement in the corner of my eye startled me and – cursing myself for losing focus – I turned and received a blow to my upper arm for my troubles. The staff retreated and I found myself facing that Marr girl, Ruby's bully from DMND. She was also the best fighter they had. Behind her, about thirty feet away, the other frozen opponent was just returning to his feet.

'_Oh! Take care of the approaching enemies.'_

The memory came to me far too late; if I knew what Ruby wanted earlier I might have been able to catch the staff wielding girl off guard.

I put the issue from my mind and side stepping another blow of her staff. The follow up attempt to sweep my feet from under me fell short of hitting me when I jumped back-

And landed on my ass.

'_The wind!'_

Aegis blocked her weapon – it looked heavy but still didn't quite pack the punch Yang did – and redirected her overhead blow into the ground next to me. I immediately kicked out at her legs and used my own Semblance to knock her off of her feet.

"Bumblebee, frontier!

I put the last member of DMND from my mind then, between the two of them-

Blake collapsed in my peripheral and Ruby made a dismayed sound as she closed with Bronzewing again. The boy was just turning back to the younger girl and I realized then that he must have been behind our faunus' defeat.

A scowl was on my face as I turned back to my own fight just in time to see the girl hit the ground. I dived at her without hesitation, knowing that wielding a staff was nearly impossible on one's back. The same went for my shield but luckily enough I could transform it into a gauntlet…

I did just that and shouldered her onto the dueling platform. We grappled on the ground for a moment but given I had an advantage in weight, height and strength I managed to pin her down with Aegis in its collapsed form. My left fist immediately started raining blows down on the struggling girl. One. Two. Three. Four-

Something hit me in the side and I was thrown a short distance from the girl.

"Hah," a tired voice – Cardin's, I recognized – said from behind me. "Not so- not so tough now are you!?"

He yelled the last bit and I made back to my feet just in time to see him start charging me. The boy was in the process of swinging his mace down and – if I stood still – it would impact my head.

'_Fool boy. Doesn't learn. Too emotional.'_

I blasted forward with what was probably a little too much of my Aura and threw all my weight behind my right arm. He tried stop himself when he saw the speed at which I was moving but it was far, _far _too late for that. He was too close and too off balanced from trying to arrest his momentum so suddenly.

My gauntlet planted itself in his stomach and the Aura I threw behind the blow tossed the boy across the stage like a rag doll. He impacted the ground some distance away and remained there, unmoving.

I took the brief lapse of combat to search for Weiss', Cardin's former opponent. He must have beaten the girl somehow, though I found that unlikely…

The Schnee heiress looked pretty scuffed up when I found her but she was on her feet and appeared to be moving realtively easily. Even now she was sliding forward, toward me-

"Enten, look out!"

I turned just in time to receive a blow from a staff to my shoulder. A wince forced its way through me even as the follow up blow caught me on my opposite forearm, the one without Aegis. I jumped back, turning toward Marr as I did so, and buffeted the ground with my Aura. The girl was sporting a pretty big black eye and looked absolutely incensed.

That thunderous expression was torn off of her face when Weiss reached us, though. The heiress stabbed forward with Mrytenaster and the staff wielding girl's Aura blunted the blow so that it acted as a bludgeoning force instead of a skewering one.

A flash of red made its appearance at the tip of the sword then and suddenly the DMND girl was blown away from us, singed and clearly unconscious.

"You need to pay more attention," Weiss said, turning on me once the girl hit the ground. "If you had _slept-!"_

"I know, I know," I groused, fully aware that I needed to deal with my over-active mind. It might have been a strength outside of battle but when I got distracted enough to start letting my thoughts wander…

The lack of sleep probably wasn't helping either.

It was something I needed to look into later. Maybe Ruby had some suggestions to keep my mind clear. There was also something to be said that this was the first full team duel any of us participated in. It would take some getting used to… there was so much _more _to keep in mind now, than there was in the paired duels.

"Come on," I said to the Schnee heiress, bumping my shoulder into hers. "You go help Yang. I'll help Ruby finish off Bronzewing."

The girl sighed and I knew her well enough to know that it was a 'this is not over' sigh but she went off to help our blonde teammate nonetheless.

I winced and deflated the moment she left. This duel had taken a lot out of me. My Aura was sitting… it was sitting at less than a quarter of its maximum but still, RWEBY was winning and-

And I needed to stop getting distracted.

Annoyed, I gathered Aura in my free hand and wasted no more time in leaping at Dove's exposed back with a Semblance enhanced jump.

Right into Ruby's scythe.

I spat a curse while the girl, wide eyed, staggered and stopped her attack. My free hand grabbed Crescent Rose's blade to help her arrest the giant weapon's momentum.

"Close one," I muttered with a grin even as we turned to face Dove. The boy had used my mess of an attack to recover.

"Mario! Let's-" Ruby said as she swung her weapon around to bring its barrel to bear. She might have finished too, if not for the crescent shaped attack that ripped free from the scythe's blade. It was a pale, translucent blue color and it tore across the stage toward Dove. The boy only had a brief moment to move and I saw his eyes open in surprise. He managed to dodge the attack, though only just and it left him horribly unbalanced.

I was already reaching for Crescent Rose's scythe at that point. Quickly, I grasped the weapon and channeled my Aura into it, like I did with Aegis. To my eternal surprise, it actually accepted the offering and began glowing a soft blue in color.

Ruby and I shared a glance and the girl grinned widely. _So widely_.

She twirled her weapon around with a flourish and eyed Dove. The boy was wary and it occurred to me that she would never hit him-

Ruby swung Crescent Rose horizontally and I threw my left fist forward. The Aura left me and I staggered, only just managing to stay upright and aware.

But still, I managed.

My Semblance reached the boy first, thankfully. It caught him just as he was crouching to jump, knocking him off balance and leaving him backpedaling as the crescent shaped attack hit him.

And did it ever hit him.

He was lifted off his feet easily when the blade impacted him. It carried his weight across the stage without issue and threw him into the back wall. The attack left a small imprint on the stone and Dove collapsed, boneless, once it faded completely.

And then, the bell chimed.

"Winner," Goodwitch intoned. "Team RWEBY."

"Holy crap that was _awesome_," Yang yelled from where she was gathering Blake in her arms. She was clear across the stage but I knew her well enough to know she didn't give a damn. "When did you guys figure out you could do that?"

Ruby didn't respond though. She was eying me silently.

"Super-energy-death-blade-scythe-attack," she stated. Then: "We're doing this again."

I grinned widely at her as I became aware of the applause we were receiving. That was strange – RWEBY rarely received it from our fellow first years…

A quick look at the stands told me that CFVY and JNPR were both politely applauding. Even Suhoca was clapping sedately. And next to her, also clapping, was… was…

HRCN.

'_Oh. I wish I would have slept now…'_

Honestly. Was it too much to ask to get some greasy food and a little shut-eye?

* * *

**A/N: **I'm not too sure how I feel about the alcohol scene but it was a last minute thing and I thought it'd highlight Enten's experience. Something to emphasize the differences between pre-secret Enten and post-secret Enten.

Let me know what you think of that scene – the alcohol bits! At the end of the day there are multiple ways with which I can emphasize Enten's differences and I'm not partial to any given one. If you guys like seeing the mature content then I'll keep mentioning it but if it's off putting for too many people then I have no problem only making references to it.

(01/16/2016) Revised.

Anyway, brainthief brought up a good point: I never mentioned how to pronounce the team names!

First year (precious gems): RWEBY (ruby), DMND (diamond), OPUL (opal), EMRD (emerald), JNPR (juniper), JYDE (jade), SAFR (sapphire), CRDL (cardinal).

Second year (food): CFVY (coffee), ONGE (orange), LIMN (lemon), CHRY (cherry), CHCL (chocolate), APPL (apple)**.**

Third year (planets – including Pluto because fuck yeah Pluto!): MCRY (Mercury), VNES (Venus), MUHN (moon), MWRS (Mars), JPTR (Jupiter), STRN (Saturn), UHNS (Ur-anus), NIPT (Neptune), PLHO (Pluto).

Fourth year (weather): SLET (Sleet), SNUW (snow), TNDR (thunder), LHNG (lightning), MNSN (monsoon), HRCN (hurricane), TNMI (tsunami), REYN (rain).

**Jackpotdante: **That's the hope. But what's a year without any hassles? No fun for us! That's what!

**Horn182: **I can relate – OCs usually end up falling into pitfalls relating to their motives. They end up so dull or predictable that the story becomes unreadable. No depth to them. Like the canon characters are part of one universe and the OC is part of another one entirely. I'm glad you found this story interesting enough to read!

**Hunter81095: **You got his emotions exactly right – hopefully this chapter will clarify his reasoning behind it a little bit! And don't worry, I'm realistic but I'm not an asshole, Jaune will have his redemption and soon too…

**CrimsonHeresy:** He's got a little more depth to him than just the Batman-esque side but that's definitely there and really interesting to write. The take-no-prisoners, prepare-for-everything attitude clashes wonderfully with Ruby's spontaneous innocence. Thanks for the review!

**M.K.M: **Still an awesome name! Thanks for the review!

**Brainthief: **It's amazingly useful to me when reviewers tell me how they interpret chapters – it gives me a reference to work with when I'm writing scenes so thank you again for being so verbose! Stress and tension explains the paranoia, you got it in one. UHNS was the team at the meeting (the third year one) and yes, they're dysfunctional. One might even say it's solely because of Uhrglas Kristall's screw-up with choosing a team. I'm eager to write more of them and now I even get to include HRCN in the shenanigans! Fun times!

And that wraps up this chapter, clocking in at just under 13k words. I was going to split it up but that meant the 1v3 fight would have been postponed and we can't have that!

Happy reading – review, favorite and what have you!

-Phailen


	13. Chapter 13

"I'm just saying," Weiss reiterated. "We should give HRCN a chance to explain themselves before we pass judgment. Coco Adel was clearly biased against them, given she has a faunus on her team."

"She seemed pretty fair," Ruby muttered even as Blake made a disapproving sound. "Coco is good at being neutral like that."

I frowned but didn't comment. RWEBY was ambling through the halls toward our clubhouse – the elder teams' name for the hierarchy's common area. Our dueling class ended ten minutes ago and, since our match was the last one for the day, CFVY, UHNS and HRCN decided to head back to the clubhouse while we stowed our weapons.

Or at least that was what Scarlatina meekly told us after class. She was evidently told to pass along the word before heading back herself.

"Be careful around Adel," I said, sipping at my orange juice. I forced RWEBY to make a detour to the dining hall just for that; I was not going to go into this half asleep. Yang and Blake grabbed some as well, at my urging. "She's good at hiding how she really feels too."

I should know. I did the same thing for seventeen years – hell, I _still _do it even now. It was only around Blake and Yang that I could speak freely and without worry. That was something I hoped I would get used to soon.

"Well, I think Coco's right. HRCN doesn't sound too nice. They abandoned UHNS and shunned CFVY!"

"And their reasons for doing that might be valid, sensible concerns," Weiss reminded Ruby.

Blake scoffed. "They did all that because Velvet Scarlatina is a faunus."

"That's only what we've been told. We haven't heard half the story yet," the Schnee heiress argued.

"Weiss has a point," I said slowly. Blake shot me a surprised look and so did Ruby, Yang only looked curious. "We haven't heard HRCN's side of the story – for all we know UHNS and CFVY have been lying to us."

A short moment of uneasy, contemplative silence descended over us before Yang spoke: "You think they're that devious?"

"No," I admitted. "I think HRCN did shun them because Scarlatina is a faunus – but I also know it's probably not as simple as that. Keep in mind the fact that we're stuck in this situation regardless of HRCN's motives. We can't just walk away from this, we have to get along with them. We _must_."

And it was true. Antagonizing HRCN was something I wanted to avoid, _especially _if they were in the anti-faunus sect. The last thing RWEBY needed was a fourth year team out for our blood.

Ruby made a distressed sound. "Sorry guys… I know I should have thought more about-"

"Yes, you should have," Weiss said, continuing quickly before Yang could interrupt. "But you didn't. I've forgiven you for it, so long as you don't do it again. I know Yang isn't mad, you and Enten appear to have made up and Blake seems perfectly happy with the arrangement. Let's put that mistake in the past and leave it there, Ruby."

That was well said. Convincing and sensible, backed up by a solid foundation of truth. Times like this one reminded me that Weiss was an heiress used to public speaking and upholding images. It probably wasn't easy – hell, I _knew _it wasn't easy – pretending to be something you were not. This side of Weiss wasn't one we saw often and… maybe that was because Ruby was the team's leader and the Schnee heiress understood people picked up on social queues like who spoke for a group and who stood at the front of the team.

I underestimated the girl, I realized. It wasn't until I was well out of college that I really started to grasp the subtle delicacies of conversation; that she was able to utilize those subconscious actions at seventeen spoke highly of her social prowess.

"We're here," Yang sang quietly as we rounded the last corner. Our clubhouse's door was placed at the end of the hallway; tall windows on both walls allowed natural light to filter into the corridor and outside I could see Beacon's expansive campus with Vale proper visible on the distant horizon.

"Let's get this over with," I muttered, opening the door once I'd reached it and allowing Ruby to enter the room. The rest of the team followed her and I took up the rear, softly closing the door behind me.

The clubhouse was just as grand as it was when RWEBY left it this morning with UHNS and CFVY – that was an awkward walk, for me at least, because Suhoca was still very much interested in my Semblance. The girl in question was sitting on one of the couches in the room, her normally glowing hair dormant for the time being. Next to her sat the twins on her team, the Tukko boys, and in an armchair to himself sat Uhrglas Kristall. The leader of UHNS was reclining in his seat and interacting with his Scroll, a small smile on his face.

Next to UHNS sat CFVY. I paid special attention to them because if HRCN was actually anti-faunus, their team would be the best way for me to gauge that. Scarlatina was the only _known _faunus in the room, after all.

She was sitting in the center of one of the couches right now and with Daichi sitting next to her the rabbit faunus looked very much like a child. The boy was _tall_. Adel was on the faunus' other side and Alistair was in an easy chair next to the couch, speaking to his leader. He was a quiet boy, as far as I could tell, seeing him speaking was almost a shock to me.

Finally, there was HRCN. They arrayed themselves on the side of the round table opposite the door. UHNS and CFVY were placed in a counter-clockwise fashion to their right and that left the sofas and chairs between the second and fourth year teams for RWEBY to take.

A boy that I recognized as Hvid Gamle, albeit with white hair a little longer than his student picture, stood when we entered the room.

"Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Enten Melkweg, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long. Team RWEBY in the flesh. I must say: it is a pleasure to finally meet you." He smiled and nodded to our group at large, waiting to retake his seat until we'd all found one ourselves. "We," he continued, indicating his team, "heard of your entrance into our hierarchy on our mission and, though we were uncertain at first, your performance in dueling class recently has easily placed you at the top of your class."

"Thanks," Ruby said, smiling.

"We especially enjoyed today's match. _Three _teams at once," the boy closed his eyes and shook his head, an awed look on his face. "_Incredible! _I daresay – you'd give _us _a run for our money with that coordination!"

Ruby grunted in surprise and started stammering. Weiss recovered for her though and a grin found its way onto my face. They made a good pair.

"Thank you. We practice teamwork every morning we can – it has given us an edge over our classmates. I believe Enten was the one to suggest it originally…"

Gamle looked to me then and I nodded, placing my orange juice on the coffee table in front of the sofa. "Ruby started what we call team discussion nights and I noticed it bringing us closer together as a team – I thought we might do the same with our group fighting."

"Impressive," Kristall commented suddenly. The leader of UHNS was looking at us with what I thought was a new amount of respect in his eyes, perhaps even a little envy? Maybe I was just misjudging the firm line of his lips. "A good acquisition," the boy continued, nodding to Adel. "Good job."

HRCN's leader snorted. "You speak of them as though they aren't here, Uhrglas!"

"He's never been able to make good choices," HRCN's R – Rod Seglare – said dryly. "That he continues to fumble about is no surprise."

Gamle grimaced and for the first time since the conversation started, I saw him become uncomfortable.

"Come on, Rod. Let's not start that now." HRCN's N – Neilikka Kyyhky – said quietly. To us, she said: "I apologize. We only just returned from our mission and immediately attended your dueling class – good job, by the way. We were all very impressed, I'm afraid our nerves are just a little frayed."

Ruby returned the girl's smile with one of her own just as Gamle spoke up again.

"Well, I think formal introductions are in order…"

"Unless Enten has already briefed them on you," Adel interrupted dryly, throwing me a look out of the corner of her eye.

"No, not this time. That was just for CFVY and UHNS," Ruby said and I was caught halfway between a grin and a grimace. Silence, surprised in its nature, fell over the group then.

"Oh! I didn't mean that like you guys aren't important or anything," Ruby continued toward HRCN, wide eyed and waving her hands in front of her face. "In fact I know he has profiles written for you guys too!"

Did she really just say that? Was I the only one that found that an awkward admission? The grin won out as my expression of choice because at this point it was too late to be worried over the implications of what the girl just said, the only thing I could do was grin and bear it. Weiss apparently disagreed, she was doing an admirable job at keeping her face blank but I saw the rigidness of her jaw and knew then that she was annoyed.

"What do you have on me," Neilikka Kyyhky asked, wide eyed. "I'm… curious. It's rare that people do write ups on us while we're still in school… It's kind of flattering actually."

"I know! I wish he'd do one about me- _Did you do one about me too?!_"

I laughed now because Ruby was at her Ruby-best in this conversation and I _did _actually have notes on her in my Scroll but I wasn't about to tell her that… They weren't the same kind of notes I took on CFVY, UHNS and HRCN anyway; the notes I kept on RWEBY were more about potential improvements in combat and things I wanted to talk to them about.

The others were more…analytical in their nature.

I cleared my throat, deciding to just answer HRCN's N rather than deal with Ruby's question.

"Neilikka Kyyhky," I read from my Scroll. "HCRN's N. Purple hair; appears meticulously dyed. Fights with a combat knife. Agile. Dexterous. Formidable fighter. Often seen in company of Hvid Gamle, HRCN's leader. Potential-"

I cut myself off there because I was not going to read my speculations about a relationship between the pair to the group at large.

"That's it," I finished lamely after I cleared my throat.

"Potential what," Gamle asked, curious. Kyyhky nodded from his side.

I shook my head. "Just some ramblings-"

"Potential relationship? Probable-"

"Ruby," I hissed. The girl had read over my shoulder while I focused on HRCN. She grinned sheepishly and shrugged. I got the feeling that she wasn't taking this as seriously as I was, not because I was scared of HRCN but because I was worried about the conflict that divided the hierarchy. I did _not _want to risk offending-

"Hmm," Gamle grunted. "That's true, I'm curious though – how did you know? Neil and I are rather private with our relationship… She isn't very comfortable with public displays and, truth be told, neither am I."

"Uhh," I stuttered, trying to remember _why _I wrote that down. It would have been early in my research efforts… back when Adel first extended the offer to RWEBY and I was doing some preliminary work…

"Oh! I," I paused… this was going to sound awkward but Ruby backed me into a corner. "I saw the two of you at lunch a few weeks back. I wasn't intentionally observing you or anything – just happened to catch Kyyhky adjust your shirt. The gesture and the expressions gave you away."

"Wow," Gamle said, his eyebrows arched. "That much from such a small interaction… I'm impressed."

HRCN's N nodded from his side and their two teammates, Rod Seglare and Citrin Har, both looked interested now too.

"What do you have on me," HRCN's R asked. The red haired boy leaned forward and placed his elbows on his knees.

Apparently this wasn't as awkward as I thought it was. Maybe I missed something or maybe it was more commonplace as you advanced through Beacon, but the results of what was essentially spying on someone wasn't something I thought belonged in polite conversation.

'_Oh well.'_

"Rod Seglare," I read. "HRCN's R. Red hair. Fights with two hand axes. Semblance: Unknown. Will observe. Edit: footage of fight found. Increasing attack speed. Builds momentum. Devastating unless disrupted. Is Semblance? Semblance enhances natural ability? Unknown. Unlikely speed of attacks is due solely to Semblance. Further study reveals foe moved slower. Appeared Seglare moved faster. Semblance slows opponents? Need to confirm."

The boy laughed and his teammates all made various surprised sounds. I wasn't done though.

"Further observation: opponent did not move slower. Limbs grew harder to move. Heavier? Likely. Only limbs that were struck were slowed. Product of the axes or the Semblance? Likely Semblance – no known weapon material that can affect a creature like that. Armor viable defense? Weapon likely doesn't need skin contact if slow is Semblance based. Contact with Aura? Unknown – Grimm have no Aura, further study needed."

I cleared my throat and looked back up. Adel was wearing a satisfied smile on her face. She was the one who sparked this discussion – with a little oblivious help from Ruby – so she must be pleased by the outcome. Maybe she wanted HRCN to be even more impressed by us? It would improve her standing with them, certainly; the stronger the team she brought to the hierarchy the better of we'd be as a whole.

Why would she want HRCN to view her team more favorably though? They shunned her and UHNS because of Velvet Scarlatina and I knew that she and Adel were fast friends now, the past week made that obvious.

Maybe she didn't care about HRCN, but about Gamle in particular? HRCN's leader didn't appear to be angry with UHNS or with CFVY; it was possible that only parts of the team were anti-faunus… I was pretty sure Rod Seglare, the boy I'd just read notes on, was the one with the problem with faunus, given his comment about Kristall making poor choices. So maybe Adel just wanted to improve Gamle's opinion of her team… Having a fourth year leader's good favor could only be beneficial to a second year team.

But then why did she originally exclude HRCN from the meeting? Why wait until the last minute to tell UHNS about us? Why?

Too many unknowns. Too many variables. Too many players at the table now. Keeping track of one team's motives was difficult enough but three?

Impossible.

I'd just have to consider the matter later. Ideally after I got some sleep…

"Damn," Seglare said, drawing me back into the conversation at hand. "That's pretty impressive firstie. You got it on the head – when I hit something it makes it weigh twice as much."

Citrin Har, HRCN's C, whispered something to her partner then and Neilikka Kyyhky laughed.

"I don't suppose you know why Sjev's hair is purple, do you," Kyyhky asked, twirling her own – albeit artificially colored – purple hair around her finger.

I hummed, looking over at the third year girl. She met my eyes and arched one of her eyebrows.

"Neil is jealous I can do this," Suhoca muttered, smirking. She pulled her hair over her shoulder and made it fluctuate between shades of purple that varied in brightness.

I watched it closely. I already knew that her hair had something to do with her power over ultraviolet light but I did not know why it changed intensities. Her teammate, Hehku Tukko, shuffled away from her then and I wondered if it was as simple as her hair brightening when her power was used.

'_The simplest explanation…'_

"It brightens and dims depending upon the amount of ultraviolet light you lace into your attacks and the degree to which you tune it. Wait- no. You need a way to control it. _You _can't use ultraviolet light… Something has to _let _you."

What did she use to throw it last time? It was just her hand… she didn't have anything in it. No hair ornaments. Nothing on her arms…

"Your rings," Blake said quietly. "Your rings glowed whenever your hair did."

"Brilliant," I muttered. I never would have thought to look at her fingers. I was expecting something more traditional in the sense that she would need to hold it or attach it to her arm.

"Hmph, maybe we should bring _them _on a mission with us," Citrin Har, HRCN's C, muttered as she looked at her leader. "It's been almost a year now… they're good enough. We saw that today."

Ruby perked up and I panicked. This was a delicate situation we were in now; appearing too eager would put us at odds with UHNS and maybe even CFVY while appearing too reluctant would get us on HRCN's bad side. I didn't like either of those options.

A gasp next to me pulled my attention toward my leader. The girl was clutching at her knee – where Weiss' hand was currently located. I realized then that the Schnee heiress was using the pressure point there to keep Ruby from blurting out anything that could get us in trouble. Even with the progress she'd made since the beginning of the school year, the fifteen year-old could still say some of the most unfortunate things at the most inopportune of times.

"Ah, we'll see," Gamle said, shrugging with an awkward smile on his face. His reluctance led me to believe that the divide between UHNS and HRCN wasn't exactly a unanimous decision. Right now only Rod Seglare and Citrin Har had showed any kind of distaste for the third year team – Hvid Gamle even seemed friendly with them! And…

Could that be why Adel sparked the conversation about my notes? She couldn't have foreseen it would result in a potential offer to tag along on one of HRCN's missions – she didn't look too pleased about that, actually – but I could see her trying to improve our image in HRCN's eyes so that her team's image was improved as well. I thought it a useless gesture before but I also thought that the fourth year team as a whole was anti-faunus. If she could sway Gamle and perhaps even Kyyhky over to her side…

"I think we've been warned to make ourselves free," I said, looking over at Adel. "CFVY is quite eager to get us out in the field."

"As they should be," Gamle said, exuberate and relieved in equal portions. The boy almost reminded me of Ruby in the way he expressed himself. "They did well in choosing you! _Especially _so early, before any of the other hierarchies even knew about you…"

"Adel," I started but the girl in question cleared her throat. She was smirking at me and I sighed, doing my best to make it sound like it was a practiced action. "_Coco_ noticed we were being paired up almost exclusively against each other in dueling class. None of the other second year teams were smart enough to attend the paired dueling days and notice that RWEBY is stronger than our record indicates."

'_There. That was enough of a shining review.' _I'll play the girl's game. I didn't know why she wanted to improve her standing with HRCN other than the obvious reason of getting stronger, but if she was happy then RWEBY would grow stronger, faster.

Or at least that was the idea.

"Truly," Gamle asked, turning to Adel.

"People ignore the things that they think don't influence them," the girl said, shrugging. "What they failed to see was that while the paired dueling days do not count toward a team's ranking, the members who fight _do_. I wanted to observe the first year teams from every possible angle, so I did. RWEBY is the strongest team in the year."

"You know," Suhoca muttered. "There's some sense in that."

She sounded bitter and I imagined that she was regretting Uhrglas Kristall's lack of effort in choosing a team last year. Considering that UHNS as a whole seemed rather marginalized in the hierarchy with HRCN around, I didn't blame her. The girl probably said more than all of her teammates combined, twice over. Her record indicated that she exerted much more effort into growing stronger than the three boys too.

She was probably bitter at her entire team, at drawing such an unlucky hand. I almost felt sorry for her but it wasn't my problem so-

Wait a minute. Suhoca was looking for strength. RWEBY was looking for strength as well. Suhoca had the experience that we did not and we had the drive that her team lacked…

Maybe we could extend an invitation to her? To train with us in the morning. We might risk offending the rest of UHNS but as best I could tell, they couldn't care any less about what happened in the hierarchy. It was like the drive had been sapped from them.

From Kristall at least. I couldn't judge the twins because they simply didn't participate in the conversation. Might be that they were just naturally quiet. I didn't know and the fact that their motives were unknown to me made me wary of extending the same offer to them. At least I knew Suhoca wanted to grow stronger. We could help her with that just as she could help us.

Additionally, if the rest of UHNS _did _end up mad at us for excluding them, the impact to RWEBY would be minimal. So long as HRCN liked us, then the potential anger of Kristall and the twins was an acceptable trade-off for Suhoca's experience.

I resolved to bring the idea up during RWEBY's next nightly discussion. It seemed worth pursuing but only if the entire team agreed.

"Impressive," Citrin Har said quietly. The blonde offered Adel a nod and I thought I detected a minute arch to the second year's eyebrows as she reciprocated the gesture. She was surprised to receive approval from HRCN's C then.

I looked to the rest of the fourth year team and found Seglare sending an incredulous stare in the direction of his teammate. HRCN's remaining members, the H and the N, didn't react overly much but both of them appeared to be happy with the turn the conversation had taken.

"Well," Gamle said, grinning widely. "I see some elements of RWEBY are just as tired as I feel! What do you say we call it quits here – only temporarily though. Enten, if you've time later, I want to pick your brain on some of my classmates."

I nodded, surprised even as Weiss huffed when she realized Yang had fallen asleep. I noticed only a few seconds before the HRCN's leader said something. Blake looked just about ready to nod off too.

"Sure," I vocalized. I heard Yang wake with a grunt somewhere to my left and Weiss hissed something under her breath shortly thereafter. An amused grin grew on my face as I stood. "I'd be happy to."

"Wonderful," Gamle replied. He raised his arms above his head and brought them down with a flourish. "Meeting: adjourned!"

Kyyhky laughed and followed the boy to HRCN's common area, idly twirling a strand of her bright purple hair around her finger as she did so. The girl mussed her partner's blonde locks as she passed by and HRCN's C swatted the hand away irritably.

The interaction between them was reassuring. HRCN had been built up to be some kind of big, bad bogeyman over the past week. To find that they were this laid back definitely went a long way to easing my worries over joining this hierarchy.

Of course, that was if _and only if_ Blake's faunus nature remained a secret. There was no doubt in my mind that if that came to light RWEBY would be treated the same way CFVY was treated. Not openly hostile but there was certainly some tension between the two teams, even if Adel was trying to ease it by getting on Gamle's good side.

That thought brought me back to my previous question: why did Adel invite RWEBY to the clubhouse when HRCN was not present. I needed to speak with her, preferably later, when I was awake.

Or now… I made eye contact with the girl for a brief moment and she used the opportunity to nod toward the corridor. Something she didn't want the rest of the hierarchy to hear? Her own team perhaps? She had to know that I would tell RWEBY about everything we spoke of…

"Hey guys," I said, turning to the girls. "I forgot to secure my locker – I'm gonna run down and do that real fast."

Yang and Blake barely managed to summon up a grunt of acknowledgement as they continued on toward RWEBY's common area. I didn't blame them, a little sleep sounded _much _better than a conversation with Adel right now but there was too much potential information involved for me to skip out on the opportunity.

"I'll come with you," Weiss volunteered and Ruby threw a sour look at the girl's back when she turned toward the door.

I snorted, amused, and winked at Ruby before I followed the Schnee heiress out into the hall. Adel already left the room ahead of us, I noted as I closed the clubhouse door.

"Alright," Weiss said turning to me once we were halfway down the hall. "I saw you lock up Aegis earlier. Why are we out here?"

I made to answer but movement farther down the corridor leading to our clubhouse distracted me. Instead of verbalizing, I only pointed over the white haired girl's shoulder.

"I can answer that," Coco Adel said as she sauntered up to us. "I wanted to have a little talk with the champ here."

Weiss' brow furrowed and she glanced between me and Adel. Slowly, her eyes rounded.

"Oh! I didn't realize- I can go back inside! Sorry! I didn't know you two were together!" Her face was flushed now and she _totally _read this situation wrong. I might have been more amused if I wasn't sleep deprived and the girl in question wasn't the most difficult one to read at Beacon. She was dangerous. That much I knew.

"No worries sweetheart," Adel said, placing her hand on my chest. "We-"

"We're not together," I said to Weiss. To Adel: "What do you want?"

I was tired and wanted to sleep. Social courtesies were the farthest thing from my mind now that the meet-and-greet with HRCN was over.

The second year scoffed and took her hand away. "Is _that _how you flirt?"

"No," I replied. "Just tell me what you want so I can go sleep."

Weiss, her complexion back to the frighteningly pale shade it normally maintained, scoffed. "I still _can't believe _you idiots stayed up all night! And before the dueling class too! If it'd been Professor Port's class I wouldn't be so angry but this actually mattered!"

Adel laughed loudly and genuinely. "That's the most brutal review of that man's class I've ever heard. Why don't we grab a bite to eat while the champ here gets some shut eye? I want to get to know you better."

"No," I cut across before Weiss could respond. The girl was left flabbergasted by the – as far as I could tell – spontaneous offer but she could recover quickly, I knew. "You brought me out here – talk."

Instead of talking, though, Adel hooked her arm through one of mine and the other through one of Weiss'. She promptly started marching down the hall, the two of us in tow.

I only just resisted the urge to sigh. This was going to be a _long _day.

* * *

"-like that one too! Have you been to Fashion Frenzy near the wall?"

"Only every weekend for the past two years! It's a hike but it's soooo worth it."

"I know! They have the _best _selection of-"

So, here I was, going on thirty-some-odd hours without sleep and sitting in Beacon's dining hall. I had a plate of food in front of me that I was idly picking at. It was good food, definitely, but certain… _elements_ nearby were absolutely deadly to my desire to be here.

Those elements being, of course, Weiss Schnee and Coco Adel.

"-had to get another closet for them!"

"You're so _lucky_! Did you have servants to get them and everything? And to help you get ready?"

"Mhm, a lot of the designers made dresses so complex that they brought in _teams _to help me get into them!"

"_What!?_ Wasn't that awkward for-"

My fingers started tapping of their own accord. They had to know. This was punishment for something. Weiss was probably still mad at me for not sleeping and I was pretty mad at past-me for that too. Adel was probably annoyed that I snuffed her in the hallway earlier.

I was pretty mad at past-me for that too.

At least present-me had chicken.

"-designed that?"

"I found it in a little stall during the Vytal Festival last year. The lady who made it was _really _nice!"

"I _love, love, __**love**_ going to the stalls during the festival-"

"Can you _**please**_ get to the point," I cut in. My nerves were strained to the absolute breaking point. Why the hell did Yang and Blake get to sleep while I got to sit through Vale shopping for the addicted 101?

"No need to be so rude, Enten," Weiss said, smiling. "We're just making small talk while we eat."

"I will steal your brush and hide it in Ruby's room."

"Try it. She'll just help me find it."

"I'll start rearranging your make up in the bathroom."

"_Please_, you don't know the difference between my make-up and the rest of the girls'. Are you really going to risk making _all _of us mad?"

"I'll repack all your stuff in your suitcases."

"If you _even think _about touching those suitcases I'll tell Yang the _real _reason clumps of yellow hair have been appearing on her pillow lately."

Defeated and glum, I turned back to my food.

So, here I was, going on thirty-some-odd hours without sleep and sitting in Beacon's dining hall. I had a plate-

"I think we've punished him enough," Adel – _'Stupid I-need-to-talk Adel.' _– said with a satisfied smile on her face. "But I do want to know the name of the designer who made your blouse."

"Only if you tell me who-"

I shoved myself away from the table a little harder than necessary, prompting the two fools I was eating with to start laughing. They went ignored; I focused instead on making my way out of the dining hall and back to the clubhouse so I could _rest_.

"Enten," Weiss' voice reached me just I walked through the dining hall's large double doors. The heavy oaken objects were left ajar, allowing the midday sun to spill into the grand room accompanied by a pleasantly cool breeze. "Enten, wait!"

I kept walking. It might have been childish – _'So childish.' _– but I didn't want to listen to them anymore. I just wanted to _sleep_.

"Hold on there, champ," Adel's voice said and I felt one of her arms loop through mine.

'_Damnit all,' _I thought as I slowed to a stop. I was done listening to them ramble on about shopping – unless they were ready to get. to. the. _point!_ then I was going to keep walking.

"Enten," Weiss said as she stopped in front of me, a cross look on her face. That expression quickly gave way to surprise when she caught sight of my face. "Oh _wow_. You look _horrible_. Sorry, I never meant to make you mad…"

A sigh escaped me and I deflated, too tired to be angry anymore. "S'fine," I muttered. "Just… let's get to the point so I can get some sleep."

"I believe this is where I come into the picture," Adel said from my side. She started walking and I started following, stumbling slightly in surprise before catching myself.

"Thanks for that back there, with HRCN," CFVY's leader started. "I was drawing a blank on how to get Hvid to appreciate the effort my team spent recruiting you."

I shrugged. "I scratch your back, you scratch mine. I'm only surprised Ruby didn't call me out on the 'making ourselves free' lie."

"You have me to thank for that," Weiss muttered from my other side even as Adel dragged her nails down my back. It felt good.

"Truly," the second year girl asked, leaning forward. I thought I detected a minute amount of surprise in her voice.

Weiss nodded. "I knew Enten was up to something," she verbalized, throwing me a speculative look out of the corner of her eye. "I also knew Ruby would be oblivious enough to ruin it. Especially after the profile debacle."

"Debacle," Adel laughed. "That was exactly what I wanted. I _knew _Hvid would be impressed by it because he's been wanting to study up on the competition for this year's Vytal Festival, not to mention the other teams in his year. Their hold on first place is tenuous at best given UHNS' depressing ranking."

The Schnee heiress hummed. "I see. Why do you care about HRCN? I thought you excluded them from our meeting?"

CFVY's leader remained silent for several moments, long enough that I started to get suspicious. She was staring straight ahead with a frown on her lips; I thought her posture seemed a little too rigid to be normal-

The same pleasant feeling ran down my back in time with the girl's nails. She should really become a masseuse, it must be something she was doing with her Aura-

Weiss pinched the skin of my free arm, jolting me out of the pleasant feeling and back into awareness. I threw a displeased look in the girl's direction but she only scowled back at me.

What was her problem? I thought she was over the fact that Yang, Blake and I stayed-

Adel's fingers again. They almost made me sleepy given how little of it I was running on and-

_Oh!_

Oh.

"Clever," I muttered, pulling away from Adel. I heard Weiss huff beside me and it was only due to the time I spent with her that I knew it was one of her pleased huffs.

The second year laughed. "I wondered how long it would take you. If not for our heiress here you'd have been putty in my hands."

I grunted, uncomfortable with the claim because, given my degraded state of mind, it was _true_. "HRCN," I prompted instead.

Adel sighed. "Alright. I knew you had a faunus family, Enten- don't look so surprised. Ruby was quite talkative when I shared some details about my own team with her. _Anyway_, I knew then that you and your team would probably be more sympathetic to the faunus than not so I wanted that idiot Seglare and his harpy, Har gone. Hvid is easy going enough that I knew he wouldn't take it as an insult so it was a win-win!"

I was right then, HRCN's R – Rod Seglare – and its C – Citrin Har – were less than friendly toward the faunus.

"Which is why you were surprised when the blonde offered you a compliment toward the end of the meeting."

"Quite," Adel nodded. "I hadn't expected that from Har. She's usually just as vehement as Seglare, if a little less vocal. Velvet lives in a constant state of paranoia and depression because of those two."

I frowned, uneasy with the thought. I didn't like that two of HRCN's number hated the faunus, partially because Blake was on my team and partially because of my bonds with my family. Speaking of, I needed to write Phoebe a letter soon. It'd been a while and I had a lot to tell her. She'd probably enjoy the fact that we had a rabbit faunus in our hierarchy.

She thought rabbits were cute.

"Are they really so bad," Weiss asked softly.

The second year growled. "They tried to kidnap Velvet in CFVY's first year. They would have gotten away with it if not for Hvid and Neil, too… This hierarchy was in shambles last year, even more so than it is now. CFVY's joining was fresh, UHNS was fighting amongst themselves and half of HRCN was out to get us. It's… It's calmer, now, thanks in no small part to my efforts in building a rapport with HRCN's leader. Once Hvid started to see the worth I and my team could bring to the hierarchy, the name calling and snide comments toward Velvet stopped. Thankfully, so did the rare occasion where Seglare and Har tried something physical."

"No wonder you didn't want them at our first meeting," Weiss said. "If one of them mentioned your family, Enten…"

"Wouldn't have been pretty," I muttered. I would have probably done something stupid and ended up in the medical room for it. Yang likely would have been right beside me – hell, maybe RWEBY as a whole would have ended up getting beaten. We did things as a team. All or nothing.

Except… Except when it came to sharing our secrets with each other. Blake still hadn't told Ruby and Weiss about being a faunus and I hadn't shared my past life. That was still a fresh memory for me, though, I'd tell the pair when I had more time to adjust to acting normal around Yang and Blake.

"So," Adel said with a sense of finality. "Thanks. You can expect to go on your first mission with us when it comes time for your next paired dueling class. I'll make sure CFVY finds a good one for you."

With that she offered Weiss a nod. Then, she turned to face me and eyed me over the top of her sunglasses.

"Careful champ," she murmured. "You keep doing nice things for me and I'll have to fall for you."

I snorted, half because that was absurd and half because I was only half certain she was kidding. I might have had something clever to say in response but in this state of mind I was lucky to be able to string five words together.

Adel laughed then and turned on her heel, sauntering off across campus. I turned to Weiss.

"Sleep."

The girl sighed, feigning annoyance. "Yes, yes you giant buffoon," she said, looping her arm through mine and leading me back toward the clubhouse. "I'll even let you borrow _my _bed. Because you just got us our first mission."

* * *

_That night_

SEDBSA.

I didn't have a single clue how to pronounce it and Ruby changed how she said the word every time she used it. In the end, I learned that if she yelled a garbled word, it probably meant I was supposed to charge up Crescent Rose.

"Sed-sah. Sed-bs…uh. Sssss…eds! Se-br-br-br-br… Say-ber…on. Sebs. Ss-"

"You are _infuriating_," Weiss cut in, nearly shaking in annoyance. We were in our common area, enjoying the warmth of the fireplace and the earthy tone to the stone walls and wooden, rug covered floors. Two large sofas and plenty of armchairs were arrayed in a half-circle, around the fireplace. The white haired girl was sitting in one of those armchairs and trying to brush her hair out before she went to sleep. Rather, she was _pulling_ her hair out before she went to sleep…a visible twitch racked her body every time Ruby tried to come up with a new way to pronounce her attack.

Her brush had _a lot_ of white hair in it tonight.

"But I need to come up with a way to say it!"

"Then do it when I'm not around," Weiss snapped. "Or come up with a _better word_!"

Ruby, sitting across from the girl in another armchair, narrowed her eyes. She looked ready to start a fight over this. "I already have a good word for it! I just need to figure out how to pronounce SED…bs-ah!"

"How about super-energy-blade-scythe-attack," I interjected, reinvigorated after my nap and watching the dots move around on my Scroll with no small amount of satisfaction. It was just on top of a featureless grid right now but the fact that I could track students' movements at all left me ecstatic.

"But there's no death part!"

"Super-energy-blade-ultimate-scythe-attack," Yang crowed from where she was lounging on one of the sofas. She threw her arms up in the air and her magazine went flying.

Ruby's eyes widened even as Weiss groaned in apparent frustration. Blake, in a chair next to Yang's sofa, delicately placed her book down and removed the magazine from atop her head. Somehow it managed to find its way there when the blonde threw it.

"It _is_ ultimate," the younger girl nodded. "Super-energy-blade-ultimate-scythe-attack."

"The blade part is kind of awkward," Blake commented, evidently giving up on reading. The girl handed Yang her magazine back in a practiced motion that – to me – suggested it happened _a lot_.

And it did. Usually at least once a night.

"Why dear students," I said, trying to imitate Professor Port's voice. "Were _I _going to name an attack it must be superbly-astounding-moustache-grooming-speech-of-boredom!"

"Moustache grooming speech," Yang chortled while Ruby burst into giggles.

"One must take the utmost care in grooming his, _or her,_" I continued, winking at Weiss, "special mouth scarf! Why only with proper care and devotion can you even hope to emulate me! But fear not my young moustache-growers, I will share with you my experience! Now, Weiss, my dearest huntress in training, may I borrow your brush?"

The girl in question, smiling now, gave me an exasperated look.

"No matter," I exclaimed. "Why on one mission where I invented Dust _and _saved an entire colony of ants, I was left to fend for myself in the _wild_. I spent seven centuries away from civilization and I kept my astounding moustache groomed to _perfection _using only my fingers!"

Ruby was shaking in an effort to keep her giggling quiet and both Weiss and Blake were sporting rather large grins. It made me return the expression; creating laughter and happiness was by far my favorite part about this team. We laughed with one another easily.

"I guess you could say he's good with his hands," Yang crowed, a suggestive tilt to her eyebrows that caught me off guard.

Surprised laughter burst out of me, encouraging the blonde to laugh as well. Weiss was shaking her head and Blake was rolling her eyes but they were both still grinning.

Ruby, on the other hand…

"What does that mean? …Yang? Yang! Tell me!"

* * *

**A/N: **Can you sit on a _side _of a round table? Or can you only sit on a degree?

(01/16/2016) Revised.

I'm extraordinarily pleased with how this chapter turned out. I enjoyed writing the scenes so much that I had it done and ready for a final proof read on Monday.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed my last chapter – I appreciated your opinions on the drinking scene. I was… uncertain of how that one would be received. It was a good 'test the waters' chapter, I think.

**GeassDragon: **Oh, there's always a reason… this one just isn't readily apparent right now. But that only deals with the plot. As far as Enten was concerned, he just wanted to reciprocate the trust Yang and Blake showed in him.

**Jackpotdante: **Enten is unique in that he has knowledge of Earth in Remnant. He is the _only _one who has those memories. If he forgets then that knowledge dies. It might not be smart in the long run to write about the more dangerous, destructive devices humanity has created, but it might be unwiser still to let it be forgotten. You never know when you might need a bit of knowledge!

**Lucifer Daemon: **Thanks! Glad you liked the scene – I figured seventeen years was _a long _time to go without a little liquid comfort.

Drop me a line, show me some love and I'll see you guys next week!

-Phailen


	14. Chapter 14

_The next day – Week 8_

A student died.

Ruby and I were on our way to Beacon's workshop when we saw the dreary procession: a stretcher with a human shaped cloth draped over the top of it, bloodied and smudged with dirt. Three dejected boys followed it and I recognized the group then as team MRCY, the only team in third year unfortunate enough to be without a hierarchy. That meant the body belonged to the sole girl on the team.

Sad, certainly, but I took it all in stride. It was not a member of my team on that stretcher, it wasn't even a member of my hierarchy. At the end of the day, it was just another dead dreamer, not the first and certainly not the last one that Remnant would claim.

I heard Ruby gasp next to me and turned to find the girl staring, horrified, with a hand covering her mouth.

"MRCY," I verbalized quietly. "Only third year team without a hierarchy. The blond boy is a decent fighter but the rest are-"

"He's dead," my leader hissed. "The record doesn't matter! It's still sad."

"She," I corrected absentmindedly. "And no, I suppose it doesn't. Not anymore, anyway."

Ruby huffed and still looked pretty unsettled so I kept my mouth shut long enough for her to gather herself. She was far more sympathetic to, well, just about everything than I was, after all.

And it wasn't that I thought of the dead girl as just another number – I was fully aware of how precious life was, likely more than most. Death was just something that I was used to at this point. People died. Call me cold, call me insensitive, but people died _all the time _in Remnant. I was just thankful that this death did not take someone I knew.

Ruby sniffed and wiped at her eyes, turning away from the scene as the stretcher slowly disappeared behind Beacon's extravagant double doors – a side entrance that paled in comparison to the main palisade of the castle.

"Okay," she muttered. "Let's… Let's go work on Aegis."

"You gonna be alright?"

She sniffed again but nodded. "Uh huh, just…" She shook her head. "They looked so _sad_."

"One of their team died," I noted. "I'd be the same way if it were-"

"It won't be! We're all gonna live, no matter what!"

I held my tongue. That was an appealing thought and I didn't want to try and convince myself that it would never be true. RWEBY _would _live through whatever was thrown at us. We had to.

The rest of the trip to the workshop was made in silence and I spent it pondering my reaction – or lack there of – to seeing the dead girl.

I knew I was a little cold and, at times, insensitive. I was very particular in my actions and in my words and I probably observed a little too much and acted too little. It all resulted from having to check myself constantly when I was growing up. Still, I knew I could show affection – my bond with Phoebe, with mom and – more recently – with RWEBY was evidence of that. It wasn't that I was completely unfeeling… it just didn't make sense to put any thought into the death of a girl whom I never knew and, now, never would.

There were other, more important things to worry about, after all.

Ruby broke our silence then as we neared the workshop doors, speaking – sullenly at first – of her plans to modify Aegis. As she spoke, however, her voice grew lighter and her gestures, more animated. She wanted to put a massive barrel down the center of the shield and, judging by the plans and drawings she showed me this morning, she spent nearly all night thinking about how it could be done. Alternate pathways that were woven into the shield itself, so that I could still channel my Aura through the shield. Reinforced grappling mechanisms to account for the increased weight of the shield. A large bracer to better support the cannon.

That was _by far _the most exciting part of the entire upgrade: The massive cannon we were going to build into the shield. Its barrel needed to be wide enough to accommodate Crescent Rose and that put it somewhere in the neighborhood of six inches or 150mm.

_Massive._ Like, artillery massive.

I was concerned about the kickback from firing such a weapon but hopefully, _hopefully _we would find a way to make it work.

"Alright," Ruby said as she let us into the workshop and immediately went about collecting various bits of metal. I did not know what kind of metal it was – some took to Aura well while others rejected it completely. My assumption was that this metal was of the kind that accepted Aura, a characteristic that usually came at the price of hardness.

On a side note: Crescent Rose was not made of Aura conducive metal. That was probably the reason Ruby was so interested in our little discovery.

"Hey," I said, inspiration having just hit me. "If I can channel through Crescent Rose… I _should _be able to channel through Aegis without-"

"Without any Aura-conducive metal!" Her eyes were wide and she immediately dropped the metal she'd collected in her arms thus far. Ignoring the cacophony of sound she introduced to the workshop, she darted over to a large scrap bin on the other side of the room, presumably to grab a certain kind of metal.

I rolled my eyes but let her go without comment. The girl was still leagues ahead of me when it came to developing and modifying weapons so I knew she had a reason to make her scythe the way she did. I was of the opinion that every weapon should be able to conduct Aura but then I was probably biased given I could do things with my Aura that others could only ever dream of doing. Maybe she needed the metal to be harder to support the sniper rifle? There must be a reason – I was adequately skilled in the workshop but apparently not enough to understand the way Ruby's mind worked.

Or maybe that was just because it was Ruby and understanding what went on in her brain was damned near impossible.

"Here," the girl shouted, thrusting a piece of metal in my face. "Channel!"

I did, accustomed enough to Ruby's exuberant behavior to take the piece of metal held a mere four inches from my face in stride.

"_You can do it!"_

"Yeah," I agreed, staring at the small piece of metal that was now glowing a soft blue. That should have been impossible. But then, _a lot _of things should have been impossible.

Didn't stop me from doing them, usually without actually wanting or trying to.

"This changes everything," Ruby said wondrously, staring almost greedily at the metal in my hand.

And it did. Mundane metal – incapable of conducting Aura – was cheaper and usually stronger. It was often lighter as well. Without being restricted to Aura-conducive metal, we could remake Aegis to be stronger, lighter and far, _far _more durable.

"Let's get to work," I whispered.

* * *

_That evening_

"I think a solid barrel is a bad idea," Ruby said again as we walked across campus that night. "That barrel is gonna get hot! Do you want to burn your hand when you touch it? No! Of course not!"

"Alright, alright," I conceded, exhausted and unable to keep up with the girl after an entire day in the workshop. I had thought that putting holes in a gun barrel would make it less accurate but I also knew next to nothing about guns and how they worked. "We can put holes in it _if _they'll keep it cool."

"_Cooler_," she corrected. "We'll have to make another sleeve around the barrel though, to contain some of the noise… that thing is gonna be _loud_ when it fires. We'll break our ear drums!"

That much I understood, at least. The gun barrel was going to be something like half a foot in diameter, after all – the noise, and recoil, would be _immense_. Ruby even mentioned that it was the largest caliber gun she knew of.

"Am I going to be carrying a cannon around on my arm," I asked numbly. It was the first time the sheer size of the gun barrel had really hit home.

"Maybe," Ruby laughed. "We'll see if it's still on your arm after you fire it!" Then, quieter: "Or if your arm is still on your _body_."

I shot her a look. "I'm not going to blow my arm off just so you can have a convenient way to charge your scythe."

"Of course not," she said quickly, waving her arms about her face. "I think if we expand Aegis' gauntlet to more of a full arm-length design, we'll have enough machinery on you to help you absorb the recoil!"

"And support the weight of the gun," I noted. Something that fired what essentially amounted to an artillery round without the actual _artillery_ bit would probably weigh more than I could lift.

"We'll figure… Is that Nora," Ruby said as she squirted across the darkening campus and I turned in the direction she was looking.

It was not difficult to find the girl, given she was made up of pinks, whites and oranges. She was full out sprinting across campus in front of us, toward Beacon's main building and away from the dorms. I knew JNPR still hadn't gotten a hierarchy – CRDL actually ended up with the only team that gave them an offer so far. I found that incredibly suspicious but I also couldn't do much about it, not when I had my own hierarchy to worry about and all the other things that kept me preoccupied during the past week.

"Hey," my leader murmured, confused. "She's… I think she's coming this way?"

"Yeah," I said, nodding. "She looks… different."

Indeed, as she grew closer I could see that Nora looked incredibly disheveled. Her hair was plastered to her face as well, suggesting that she'd been running for quite some time. Her eyes, I noted when she drew closer, were moving erratically and constantly darting around Ruby and I.

It was almost like she was searching for something.

"Guys," she panted when she stopped in front of us. "Have you seen Jaune anywhere?"

Or, rather, some_one_.

"No," Ruby said slowly. "We've been in the workshop all day."

Nora's face fell and a frown – the first time I'd seen her with that expression – came over her features. "Oh… well, if you do, let me know. It's _important!"_

"What happened," my leader asked, wide eyed.

The orange-haired girl froze. "Uhh, well… he and Pyrrha _kiiiind _of had a fight," she swallowed. "Like – a _big _fight and then Jaune left! And that was earlier today! We don't know where he is now!"

I frowned while Ruby gasped. The boy abandoned his team, then. I hoped that my confrontation with Cardin in the dining hall all those weeks ago would take the bully's attention off of the blond boy, maybe give him some breathing room to come to his senses. And it did: CRDL's leader spent just as much time hounding me as he did Jaune but apparently it was still too much.

A meltdown was what I expected, maybe even a moment of courage in which JNPR's leader would stand up to his bully. But to leave Beacon entirely? To abandon his team?

Maybe I overestimated him.

But then, all we knew now was that he was missing. Might be that I was wrong, might be that the boy just needed to get away for a day, to think. I certainly understood the value of some peace and quiet.

I pulled out my Scroll, noting idly that Nora was gone now, and opened up my map.

A frown came over my face when, upon filtering by first year students, Jaune's name did not appear. A quick check of Beacon's wireless logs told me he hadn't actually been on the network since late morning.

"Huh," I muttered. "I don't think he's on campus anymore."

"What?!"

I jumped, having honestly forgotten about Ruby's presence. The girl was staring at me, still wide eyed, with her hands fisted in the material of her cloak. It was a nervous habit of hers, I knew. She got that cloak when she was accepted into Signal – a gift from her father – and it went with her everywhere.

"He's not on campus," I repeated.

"Then where is he?!"

A shrug of the shoulders was the best answer I could give her. Outside of Beacon's campus, I had no way of knowing where anyone was.

Ruby groaned and tossed her hood over her head; one of her hands was placed over her mouth and her eyes narrowed in thought. "Come on Ruby, think! Where would you go if you were Jaune… JNPR's dorm! No-no, he's not on campus. And Nora would have seen him then, _duh!_ The Emerald Forest? Maybe he went there to think?!"

She said the last sentence to me and I grimaced.

"I think he might have left Beacon permenantly… Just a hunch," I said quickly when Ruby's mouth dropped open.

"_Why would he do that?!_ Beacon is the _best _school in Vale to be a huntress! Or a hunter, cause Jaune's a boy. But it's still the best! Why would he- _Cardin!"_

I nodded slowly. "He's probably involved in it, somehow."

Ruby growled. "Oooooh when I get my hands on that… that big… dumb… _stupid head _I'll give him _such _a talking to! He needs to be nicer!"

"Language, Ruby," I said dryly, a small smile on my face. It was nice to see this Ruby return – over the past week I'd only seen a more serious one.

"Don't _language, Ruby _me," the girl exclaimed, tossed her hood back. "He's being a _huge _meanie!"

"Yeah, he is. Jaune should have looked to his team for support."

The girl whined and restlessly fiddled with her fingertips. "We need to find him," she decided with a nod. "He might not want to leave! Maybe _Cardin _is-"

"Cardin is in his dorm. He hasn't sent any messages to Jaune since yesterday," I said. That was the second thing I checked after finding out the blond boy was not on campus.

"Then… Then, did Jaune," Ruby swallowed. "He didn't _really _leave? Did he?"

A shrug was the only thing I could offer her. That was beyond what I knew. All I could tell was that the last time the boy logged into Beacon's wireless was this morning, when he was near the edge of…_oh._

"He was near the edge of campus when the wireless last saw him. By the city's border."

Ruby's eyes widened. "We need to find him," she repeated, marching off in the direction of our weapon lockers.

"Why?"

"What do you mean _why_? Because he _left!_"

"Yeah, but that doesn't affect RWEBY or our hierarchy."

"Jaune's a friend! He might be a stubborn, rock-headed friend but he's still a friend!"

"He's," I frowned, swallowing. I didn't like saying this anymore than I figured she'd like hearing it but it needed to be said. "He's a bad leader. He's too proud to accept help when he needs it and he's single handedly keeping JNPR from getting into a hierarchy… They're better off without him."

I formed that opinion over the last two months and despite having had ample time to turn his situation around, to change my mind, Jaune continued to disappoint.

Ruby's eyes narrowed. "You… you don't mean that… He just needs help!"

"Help he continues to refuse. He's a lost cause, Ruby."

"You're such an _asshole _sometimes," the girl bit out, a fierce frown on her face. I was taken back to the time I saw her stand up to those punks from DMND. It both surprised and unsettled me to be on the receiving end of the girl's anger. "_I'm _going to help my friend. Whether or not you're with me!"

With that, she stormed off toward the weapon lockers, leaving me in a heavy, uncomfortable silence.

I still thought he was a lost cause. Countless times Pyrrha and his team offered to help him and countless times he'd turned them down. Even elements of my own team reached out to him but he turned down RWEBY the exact same way: angrily and ungratefully.

It was amazing to me that Ruby still tried to help him, honestly; she was truly the most altruistic, kind-hearted person I knew.

A begrudging sigh escaped me as my feet started trudging after the girl. Jaune might be a lost cause, but as long as Ruby tried to help him then I would support her. She earned that much and more from me, both in her capacity as a capable leader of team RWEBY and as a steadfast friend.

So, I was going to help my far-too-kind leader try and convince a hopeless boy to return to Beacon. Neither of us knew where said boy was, just that he wasn't on campus and was last registered on its edge closest to the city. It followed then that the boy was going home, assuming he lived in Vale proper.

Did I have any way of figuring out where he lived?

Beacon kept a database full of student addresses. That was a possibility. I knew for a fact I didn't have access to it but I might as well-

My Scroll chimed encouragingly and opened said database under my virtual client without issue.

…Or maybe I did? That wasn't right…

Still, I wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth. I'd tell the headmaster about the slip up tomorrow; for now I had an address to find.

That ended up taking me longer than I would have liked – there were a lot of students in that database, current and old. Oh well, at any rate I copied the street address and saved it in a memo on my Scroll, closing and locking the device just as I reached the weapon lockers.

I pushed open the door and just about ran straight into the Ruby. The girl was on her way out, Crescent Rose on her back and a worried frown on her face. That frown was immediately replaced by a look of surprise upon seeing me and shortly thereafter a wide grin overtook her features.

"Enten," she exclaimed, throwing her arms around me in an impulsive hug. "You decided to help!"

I nodded, returning the embrace. "I couldn't just let my leader wander off on her own."

Ruby laughed, releasing me so that I could extract Aegis from its resting place. "I _knew _you didn't mean all that stuff about Jaune!"

A frown almost formed on my face but I managed to stop it as my fingers went about disarming my locker's security. Inside was Aegis as well as the frame for a new shield. Ruby and I decided that it would just be easier to rebuild the shield with sturdier metal from scratch rather than tear apart the old one to replace it. It would leave me with two weapons when all was said and done… maybe I could leave Aegis' first iteration with my family.

"You… hey," Ruby called from behind me. I turned to face her just as I finished securing Aegis to my right forearm; the scar that marked the night my father died was hidden from the world once more.

"Enten?"

"Yeah," I said, looking up and meeting the girl's eyes.

"You didn't mean all that stuff… you know, about Jaune? Did you?"

This time I did frown. "Friendship is… a powerful thing," I started slowly. "I pick them carefully, my friends, because having that emotional attachment to someone _might _be a liability. _You_ are one of friends," I continued before she could interrupt. "You, and Yang, and Blake, and Weiss. All of you are my friends."

"We're all liabilities?"

She was frowning.

"I said it _might _be a liability. It could also be a great boon. Who better to have at your back than a friend? A friend that supports you, that helps you reach your goals? _That's _the kind of friend you are to me, Ruby. _That's _why I'm here. Not because of Jaune. Because of _you_."

"Aww," she cooed quietly, throwing her arms around my neck again. "You're my friend too!

"I still think you're wrong, though," she said matter-of-factly when she pulled back. "But still: _aww!"_

I laughed wryly. "I hope I'm wrong too, Ruby. But we should probably get going – I figured out where Jaune lives and it's _not _close."

* * *

_Later that night_

It was looking like this would be another late night – a very bad thing considering I was only running on a shoddy night of sleep and a nap from yesterday afternoon. At least Ruby was awake and as energetic as usual. I had a feeling she'd need all the patience she could get to talk some sense into Jaune and being tired would only erode that emotion away.

My Scroll buzzed, prompting me to bring it up front of me. Another message from Yang.

"_Why?!"_

I grimaced but I couldn't say I was surprised. Big sister just learned little sister was out on the town in the middle of the night. I was willing to bet that Enten would get the lion's share of the blame for this little adventure too.

"_The asshat left Beacon. Ruby wants to get him back. Crush possible."_

Again I lamented my lack of foresight. I should have told Weiss, Blake and Yang where we were going but Ruby was in such a rush to find Jaune now that she knew where he lived it just slipped my mind. We were only about half way to his house too, some two hours later. He lived a _long _way away, sort of close to my house, actually.

"_Asshat?! What do you mean crush!? WHERE AREY OU?!"_

Uh oh. Spelling errors marked an angry Yang. Maybe I should have Ruby take over-

"Enten," the girl in question said then, walking next to me. "Do you- oh good. I forgot my Scroll in the workshop and I was thinking we should let the rest of the team know where we are. Just so they don't worry."

"It's a little too late for that," I muttered sardonically even as I replied to Yang: _"Jaune. Ruby has the hots for him. Around some warehouses."_

"What do you mean," Ruby said and I looked up at her to find her frowning at me. "Are they worried already?"

I nodded as the two of us walked between another pair of warehouses. We were in a more industrial part of the city now and it was slightly unnerving to be here after dark. Empty warehouses full of who-knew-what seemed like the perfect clichéd meeting spot for some criminals. Of course, I was fairly certain Ruby and I could deal with any thugs we found, if any at all. I was probably just overreacting… the docks were the area that allegedly hosted all of Vale's criminal nightlife.

"Yang is-" I started but stopped when my Scroll began buzzing incessantly. "Speak of the devil, she's calling now."

Ruby scoffed as I made to answer the call. "I _told _her I can take care of myself!"

"How do you know she's not worried about me," I quipped as I brought the Scroll up to my face. Yang's features appeared on my screen and I knew instantaneously that the blonde was _not happy_.

"Enten! What's the big deal? Where are you? And why isn't Ruby answering my messages!?"

"Well," I started. "In order: Jaune. Near some warehouses. She left it in the workshop."

"You guys are near warehouses?! Why!?"

"Jaune."

"What- I don't even," the blonde stopped and pulled at her hair, breathing deeply and slowly. It occurred to me then that messing with her earlier was probably a bad idea. "Where is Ruby?"

"Right here," I said, throwing my arm around the girl's shoulder and forcibly bringing her into the conversation. Because it was definitely _not _voluntary.

"Ruby," Yang exclaimed. "Good! You're- Are you hurt? Why didn't you tell me where you were going?!"

The younger girl groaned. "I'm _fiiiine_. I didn't tell you because I forgot because Jaune left Beacon and me and Enten are going to go get him back! It was _kind of _important. Oh yeah, can you get my Scroll for me?"

The blonde's eyes narrowed then and Weiss' face appeared next to hers.

"Did you say Jaune left Beacon," the girl asked.

"Yeah," I verbalized as I nodded. Ruby wriggled out from under my arm and instead kept walking, urging me to do the same so we could catch Jaune sooner.

My feet moved forward automatically – the girl had a point. I definitely didn't want to stay out too late doing this and these warehouses were still discomforting. Better we wrap this up sooner rather than later.

"Oh," Weiss responded simply. "Maybe now JNPR can start excelling and get into a hierarchy?"

I hummed absentmindedly, focused more on the thunderous expression Ruby put on as she stomped over to me than Weiss' words.

"You're in trou-" I sang before my leader seized the device.

"Weiss," Ruby started. "How could you say that?! He's been nothing but kind to you and he's always giving you compliments and stuff! Plus, _Cardin _is a big fart-head and won't leave him alone so it's not _his _fault he's… he's not… not, uh…"

"An accomplished fighter," I offered delicately.

"Yeah," the girl exclaimed. "An accomplished fighter – that's Cardin's fault!"

"And I suppose it's Cardin's fault that Jaune turned down his team and _you_ when you offered to help him?"

Ruby faltered then and I saw her grimace. It was true and I completely agreed with Weiss but at the same time I knew the younger girl only honestly wanted to help the boy. That was something that should be encouraged, rather than discouraged. That selflessness was part of what made Ruby, Ruby.

"He might be an enormous fool," I inserted, leaning over the shorter girl's shoulder. "But if Ruby thinks he's not a lost cause then we should support her."

Weiss shrugged and her head disappeared out of the frame. I knew she and I were in agreement over Jaune – better that JNPR just ditch him – but having him at Beacon wasn't detrimental to _our _team so if getting him back pleased Ruby then I'd help out.

"So," I continued, taking my Scroll back from Ruby. "You satisfied now?"

Yang grunted, clearly not satisfied but she nodded begrudgingly anyway. "Don't stay out too late."

I snorted, idly hopping over a few wooden pallets that were messily spread about the ground. Someone would probably get in trouble for that later…

"Yes, mother."

"I'm serious," the blonde said. "I don't care what Ruby thinks, if Jaune wants to leave Beacon-"

"Hey," Ruby said suddenly, pulling my attention away from the Scroll. "Do you hear that?"

"Hold on, Yang," I said to the device. The blonde fell quiet and I narrowed my eyes, listening for whatever it was the younger girl heard. The silence lingered for two, three, four, five seconds before I broke it.

"No… I don't hear anything."

Ruby frowned.

"Are you guys okay," Yang asked and I looked back at my Scroll to find her frowning again.

"Yeah, probably just a rat or something," I responded, edging my way around an upturned crate… which was kind of suspicious. Either someone _really _didn't care about the state in which they left this place or… or something was up. "Someone forgot to clean up after their shift…"

I glanced behind me, back at the wooden pallets, and now noticed that there was also an upturned crate a couple dozen feet from them as well. In the distance I even thought I saw a light on in one of the warehouses; the only reason I could see it now was the fact that the door faced me, where before Ruby and I were walking along the side of the building.

Speaking of Ruby, I turned back to the girl, only to find her disappearing around a corner of a warehouse.

"Ruby-_damnit_," I bit out, louder. That immediately threw Yang – who had been strangely quiet until now – into a frenzy.

"What's going on? Is she okay? Is she still with you?"

I declined to answer and instead rounded the corner where I last saw my leader. A narrow alleyway stretched in front of me, sheet metal warehouses on either side of the path. A dumpster rested against one of the walls half way down and there was a sewer drain on the ground too.

But no Ruby.

"Enten!"

"No," I said without thinking, taking off down the alley way. "She's gone. I'm trying-"

"What do you mean she's gone!?"

"She's not with me," I spat, glancing down at my Scroll briefly and realizing that Blake and Weiss were now in the frame as well. Both looked concerned, wary and surprised but their emotions paled in comparison to Yang's.

"_Find her! _Where are you?! I'm coming out there!"

"I told you," I responded, frustrated that I couldn't find Ruby and that Yang was distracting me so thoroughly. "Industrial district. In the warehouses."

The end of the alleyway spat me out into a small clearing. Three warehouses, made of the same cheap looking sheet metal, sat across from me while two more sat on either side of the open space. It was in front of the rightmost warehouse that I found Ruby. It was also from the rightmost building that I now heard a mechanical noise.

A grimace stretched across my face. She was right then, I just couldn't hear whatever that was before.

I switched my Scroll into voice-only mode as I sprinted across the clearing toward Ruby. It cut Yang off mid-sentence but I didn't exactly have time to tell her what I was doing – my leader was inching toward one of the smaller, human-sized doors and she was _definitely _going to reach it before I reached her. She must have been sprinting for all she was worth to get such a large lead on me… that girl was _much _faster than she looked.

"Ruby," I hissed as I slide up to the warehouse beside her. Yang abruptly stopped shouting in my ear and the other half of the troublesome sister duo turned around toward me, her eyes wide.

I studied her for half a second – pale face, wide eyes, mouth hanging open – before I realized she was pointing toward the door. Carefully, because that noise was _very clearly _close now, I sneaked a look inside the warehouse.

It was brightly lit, so much so that it took me a few seconds to adjust. When my eyes were finally able to focus again I saw that it looked like a stereotypical warehouse. Crates stacked high on metal scaffolding, a few vehicles to move the large objects around, bare concrete floor and featureless walls. What stood out, however, was the presence of nearly a dozen armed men.

All of them were dressed in expensive-looking suits and tuxes, top hats and ties and dress shoes were common on the lot of them. The vast majority toted around a gun or a sword, and they all went along with some kind of matching red and black color scheme.

The men – criminals of some kind, likely, they looked like a shoddy excuse for mafia men – were busy moving the crates around and it appeared as though they were trying to find something. There was a pile of crates in the far corner of the warehouse that were carelessly piled up in a haphazard fashion, their contents spilling out across the bare floor in a chaotic mess. Clothes, shoes, vials and books were what I could make out in a glance.

An exuberated shout attracted my attention then and I turned to find several of the thugs looking into one of the crates. They must have found-

"Schnee Dust Company," I whispered, reading the label on the shipping crate. Weiss' family. Why-

"_What," _Weiss shouted into my ear. "What does my family have to do with that idiot boy?!"

I cringed away from the phone in my ear, having forgotten that Yang was still connected.

"There's some thugs in the industrial district stealing from one of your crates," I muttered, quiet as I could even as I leaned up to look back in the window. Ruby shouldered her way up as well – or she tried… she was only just half my weight. I shifted so that the girl had room to look as well.

"Stop them," the Schnee heiress said shrilly. "Those _worthless _ruffians! _Every time!_ They steal because they're so-"

"You guys need to get out of there," Yang's voice cut in suddenly. She sounded dead serious and I realized then that she was right. Better Ruby and I escape with our lives than risk facing a group of armed men. I didn't know if any of them could use Aura or not. I didn't know if any of them were trained hunters. I didn't know anything about them.

"They need to _stop them!_ Those-"

I pulled the phone away from my ear while Weiss ranted. It was loud enough that the men inside the warehouse would hear, if only they weren't still celebrating-

"Great job," a dry voice sounded from inside the warehouse and my attention was drawn to an orange haired man in a bowler hat. He wore a white suit and dark pants; there was also a cane in his hand. "You barbells managed to find _one _crate after _three _hours of searching. And it even has the Schnee emblem _on the side of it!_"

Ruby stirred next to me but I ignored it in favor of observing the happenings inside further.

"Ugh," the man groaned. "This is what I get for trying to find a bargain deal. I should have known," he continued, throwing his arms out. "I should have known this would happen! Never buy cheap when you want the job done right."

There was some disgruntling muttering among the thugs but none of them protested. That suggested that the man in the bowler hat was at least strong enough to fend them off and also that he apparently bought their service. Were they mercenaries for hire? What did the orange haired man need with – presumably, given the Schnee emblem – dust?

I heard my name being hollered from my Scroll so I begrudgingly brought it back up to my ear.

"What," I said, cutting across Yang.

The blonde huffed. "Are you gone yet," she said. Her voice sounded strained, she was likely staring down Weiss, given the heiress wanted Ruby and I to stop this from happening.

"We're-"

_Oh shit. _From one of the corners in the warehouse, a figure approached the commotion. He was hunched over and his hands were bound in front of them. A dirty, hooded sweatshirt was draped over his chest and ripped in several places. There were a few red stains on his jeans as well.

Jaune Arc.

They had Jaune.

"Oh shit."

Ruby made a shrill noise, almost a whine and I reached for her shoulder. "Ruby. Wait!"

She darted under my searching hand and immediately utilized her Semblance to propel herself through the larger warehouse door – fit more for heavy machinery and large vehicles – to our left.

"_RUBY!"_

But it was too late, she was already gone. Storming into a warehouse full of unknowns!

"Damnit. _Damnit!"_

"Enten," Yang's panicked voice came from my Scroll even as I lunged toward the opening. "Enten?! What's-"

"Get here," I spat, expanding Aegis as I cleared the doorway. The thugs were slow to react and my leader had already taken down two of them while they were surprised. That was good – hopefully _all _of them would go down just as easily. "They have Jaune – Ruby went in – _GET HERE!"_

I ended the call and shoved my Scroll into my pocket, blasting myself at the nearest thug with an application of my Semblance. My foot impacted the man's back and he went flying away from me just as he finished pulling out his gun. He, like the rest of his cohorts, was turning to face Ruby. The girl herself was still making relatively quick work of the clearly untrained men.

Or at least, not as trained as us. They weren't hunters. There were no huntresses here. They were thugs, plain and simple. Prey to a bigger, badder beast.

I snarled when I found my next target: a man taking aim at Ruby's back.

Aegis thundered forward with a high pitched whine and an explosive _clang _of metal and I watched, satisfied, as the Aura I laced into the shield through the chain exploded in front of the man. He was sent sprawling away and impacted one of the shipping crates with a solid _thud_.

I recalled Aegis just as another thug took a swing at me but it was slow and easy to avoid. Much, _much _slower than what I was used to. Much, _much _slower than what I was capable of dodging. My dominant elbow struck his chin without any impediments and I planted my other fist in his gut just as Aegis reached me. I wasted no time in slamming the shield into the man's face, dropping him just as another two thugs charged at me.

One was blown off of his feet by my Semblance and the other was thrown back the way he came when I threw my weight behind Aegis and shoulder checked him with an Aura-laced blow. He flew half way across the warehouse and landed in a crumpled heap just as I reached his friend; the man regained his feet just in time to receive a murderous uppercut to his chin and he too was sent flying across the warehouse.

Gunfire peppered the ground in front of me and I hid behind Aegis. Another thug was some thirty feet from me, trying and failing to hit me with his sub-machine gun. Its lack of penetration power made it far from the unstoppable force needed to overcome my immovable object and the fool found that out the hard way when I reached him without slowing. Quickly, I collapsed Aegis and immediately started a three-hit combo I'd been working on.

A right jab that caught him on the chin, sending him stumbling back. My right elbow impacted his neck as I finished the blow, depriving him of his air. Finally, my dominant arm retreated, grabbing his shoulder on the way, and pulled him right into my left fist as it rocketed forward, laced with enough Aura to make it glow a dull blue.

This time, the man flew _all _the way across the warehouse.

'_I need a name for that combo…'_

"Enten," Ruby yelled and I turned to find her fleeing the warehouse. She disappeared out a side door and I spat a curse as I started to follow her. Neither Jaune nor the orange haired man were anywhere to be seen. The thugs littered the ground around me, all of them groaning and clearly out of it. They were barely a warm up compared to the competition Beacon threw at me.

"Ruby," I shouted as I followed the girl and emerged in a small, empty clearing. I could see the larger one Ruby and I were in earlier, to my left, and the first of the three warehouses in the row lay just ahead of me.

I heard a door slam shut and I focused in on said warehouse just in time to see Ruby's cloak vanish from the door's window. The larger entrance out front was shut on this one, indicating the men hadn't planned on moving anything in or out of the structure.

A crash from within the sheet metal building spurred me into action and I sprinted the short distance to the door, throwing it open when I reached it and entering the warehouse with Aegis in front of me.

"-I use cheap labor," the orange haired man was ranting. He stood near the center of the room with Jaune slightly in front of him; his cane was pointed at the boy's head and I thought I saw an aiming reticle on the end of it. "We're moving up in the world and _that _means looking for some quality partners!"

I shuffled forward carefully. This warehouse was much more dimly lit than the last one; I could see that there were still plenty of crates piled up on metal scaffolding but only the center of the room was illuminated.

The orange haired man looked over at me. "You found a friend, red! _Great! _Just what I need! More kids to beat down my hirelings!"

Ruby glanced over at me and hummed when I reached her side, clearly uncomfortable with the situation. There was a grimace on her face and a furrow in her brow that indicated confusion to me. She was gripping Crescent Rose so hard her knuckles were white, too.

"What's your name," I grunted, lowering Aegis slightly. Not all the way, Sjeverni Suhoca taught me better than to let my guard down when I thought an enemy didn't pose a threat.

That burn took an entire day to heal.

"Finally," the man continued, throwing his head back in apparent glee, "someone that _speaks! _I like you, blue. Conversation is so very _dull _when it's completely one-sided."

"Talking to yourself. Some might call you insane," I responded, slowly strafing around the man. My eyes were locked onto the end of the cane and anticipation left me wound up like a tightly coiled spring… still, I needed to get him between Ruby and I.

"Never myself," he laughed. "I always have a partner, but sometimes red just isn't very forthcoming…"

"Neither are you. Still haven't told us your name." Half way there. He was turning to track my movement. If I could just get him to turn a little more…

The man grinned widely. "Roman Torchwick, at your service, blue. And that lovely lady behind you is called Neo."

My eyes widened when I heard a rush of air behind me and I dove forward just as Ruby charged. She flew by me and used Crescent Rose's blade to vault around the metal scaffolding and propel herself up into the air via an excellent application of momentum and force. She just started to arch over Roman in the air when I turned back to my new opponent.

She was short, that was my first observation. Oddly so, almost enough that it would make fighting her more difficult… make her harder to hit. My second observation involved her features – both her eyes and her hair were split between pink and brown down the middle.

But then she blinked and her eyes… they switched. The left one was pink now and the right one, brown. At least her clothing – a white jacket cut off just underneath her breasts, a black corset, black pants and white knee-high boots – appeared to behave normally. No changing colors there.

I shook my thoughts off and slowly strafed around her, aiming to put her back to Ruby and Roman's fight rather than my own; she only watched me, docile. A small smile was on her face and the umbrella in her hand – presumably her weapon – was left leaning against her shoulder. She kept me in front of her, but other than that she did nothing.

'_Up to me to start this, then.' _Somehow I didn't think the pair of them would just let Ruby and I leave with Jaune; given that and how intent my leader seemed on beating the orange haired man, I knew we weren't going to get out of this without a fight. Bringing the Arc boy into this appeared to have spurred the girl into adopting an aggressive stance.

I threw my left fist forward and a relatively weak blast of my Semblance tore across the space between us. It rippled through the air but in the shadowy illumination of the warehouse I could barely see it.

Neo only brought her umbrella out in front of her, expanded it and absorbed the blow easily.

A grunt escaped my throat as a strategy formed in my mind and I blasted myself forward. My left arm sent another salvo of Aura at her and she reacted to it the same way she had the first: by blinding herself with her umbrella.

I landed in front of her and thrust Aegis forward in a shoulder check but she nimbly spun around the blow and expertly placed herself on my weak side. I'd fought Blake plenty before though, I was used to nimble. My heel kicked out and my Semblance buffeted the ground, unbalancing her and wiping the smug grin from her face. Quickly, I thrust out at her with a left jab but she only smacked my arm away from her with the umbrella.

A grimace appeared on my face at the stinging blow and I hid behind Aegis when she lashed out with her umbrella again. The shield absorbed the blow readily and I threw my weight forward to counter the force behind the umbrella, hoping to unbalance her. She compensated easily though and spun herself into my guard.

My eyes widened and her umbrella flew at my head just as I collapsed Aegis. My left arm blocked her attack, leaving it stinging but otherwise unharmed, and I threw my head forward in a head-butt. She ducked though and suddenly I found my head rocked back by an upward thrust of her umbrella.

I stumbled back, dazed and fighting to focus again; this was an opponent I could not take lightly.

But she did not press her advantage. Instead she only leaned up against a nearby crate.

My eyes narrowed. Either supreme confidence in her ability to win or absolute arrogance led her to behave that way. Both were exploitable – I needed only to keep my mind clear and any anger on a tight leash.

Ruby suddenly hurtled over us and swung herself about the metal scaffolding with her scythe's blade, flying back toward a target I could only assume was Roman with a battle cry on her lips and a shower of red rose petals left in her wake.

I looked back to Neo, finding her in the exact same spot with the same grin on her lips. She did not like losing, I knew that in the way her face contorted into a rictus of anger when I used my Semblance to buffet the ground and unbalance her. That made me think that she was arrogant. Maybe she didn't see me as a threat?

That was good. I needed only to finish this fight before she realized she was wrong.

My feet moved forward slowly, approaching with a cautious gait. This pace of battle suited me more than the fast paced sparring we did at Beacon – if she wanted to gloat in an attempt to make me angry, let her. Time to observe, to plan, would never be turned down.

I brought Aegis, still unexpanded, up in front of me with my palm open and facing her. My left hand coiled into a fist and, when I was close enough, I sent a blast of my Aura thundering toward the woman.

She reacted just as she always had before, expanding her umbrella and absorbing the attack. I closed again, just as I did last time, charging.

This time, it was my left fist rather than my shield that was thrust forward and Neo smacked my arm away from her with the umbrella. Quickly, she thrust that umbrella at my face again and my right arm, coiled and tense and twitching and waiting for that _exact _move, snapped into action.

It darted forward and, in Aegis' gauntlet, caught the umbrella. Immediately I clamped down on the object and I felt her try to expand it in my hand – my own strength combined with Aegis' mechanic power was too much, though, and it stayed collapsed.

Her face fell and a frown appeared there. Her eyes switched colors when she blinked and-

I cowered away from her leg when she thrust it upward, all the way up to my head, in an absolutely _mind-boggling _display of flexibility. Leaning away from it turned it into a glancing blow that landed on my shoulder and I laughed.

"Must be great in bed," I muttered to her and delighted in the way her features turned thunderous.

My left hand flew forward in a jab and she turned sideways, avoiding the blow until I jerked her umbrella toward me. She stumbled forward and I grabbed the back of her head with my still-extended left arm. My knee flew up then just as my arm pulled her face down.

The _crack _that emanated from her nose was loud enough that it echoed around the warehouse.

She stumbled backward, having released her umbrella, wide eyed and _absolutely _furious. It was written into every hard line in her face, now. The way her eyebrows furrowed. The way her lips formed an unforgiving line. The way her jaw was clenched.

Roman laughed. "This kid too much-" He cut himself off abruptly when the woman in question whirled around to face him.

The man cleared his throat awkwardly just as Ruby landed next to me. I still had the umbrella in my hand and, silently, I urged her to move toward Jaune. The boy was standing, now armed with his shield and sword, on the edge of the center light.

"We should go," I breathed even as Roman backtracked when the much shorter woman approached him.

Ruby frowned but glanced at Jaune and then back at me. "Fine," she said, clearly unhappy.

I nodded and glanced back at our opponents. Roman was talking and making emphatic movements with his arms while Neo stood in front of him, arms crossed and completely unmoving.

"Get the door-"

I was cut off mid-sentence when Neo herself flew at me out of the shadows. I reflexively blocked her first kick with my right arm – the one that still held the umbrella – and jumped back to put some distance between us.

She advanced, though, ignoring Ruby when she swung Crescent Rose at her and-

She shattered into hundreds of pieces of what looked like glass.

I swung my head around, finding the Neo in front of Roman suffered a similar fate. The man was grinning at us now.

"Neo takes great care to look her best, blue. You're done for, now."

I clenched my fist around the umbrella harder still. It was clear Neo was after me now – both because I broke her nose and took her umbrella – and that was exactly the way I wanted it. From what little I'd seen of Roman's fight, it looked like Ruby was the more accomplished combatant.

"Get Jaune out of here," I yelled to my leader as I took off running toward the door I entered the warehouse through. She made an alarmed sound but I didn't stop because I heard someone running after me. The steps were too delicate to be Ruby and I knew Jaune was slower than me. This person was keeping up with me, gaining even.

It could only be Neo.

I blasted myself forward with my Semblance and shoulder checked the door right off of its hinges. The joint might be a little sore for the near future but I didn't exactly have time to stop and open the thing.

I spilled out into the clearing, surrounded on all sides by the sheet metal buildings and under the light of Remnant's oddly foreboding moon. The ground was clear and I could see easily enough, though everything looked slightly washed out and pale but that was normal for such an hour of the day.

No sign of Yang, Blake and Weiss. I could not hear Bumblebee either. They were probably close though… it'd taken Ruby and I two hours to walk here, on the motorbike it ended up being a fifteen or twenty minute trip.

I skidded to a stop in the middle of the clearing, turning around to face my pursuer.

Neo stopped about fifteen feet from me, still furious. Still bleeding heavily from her nose. There was no grin on her face, now, only a scowl.

"Don't mind me," I taunted. "I'm not much of a threat."

Her eyes narrowed furiously – they switched colors again – and she threw herself forward.

I switched the umbrella to my left hand and expanded Aegis. It was time to play a defensive game. I just needed to wait out the rest of RWEBY's arrival…

Her first kick was absorbed readily by Aegis' unyielding metal and she spun, faster than I could react, to my weak side. I grimaced and jumped back, retreating outside of her reach and the scowl on her face deepened. Her eyes flashed white and-

She _disappeared._

I spun, swiveling my head about, desperately trying to find her-

Something impacted the back of my head and shortly thereafter I felt something impact the back of my left leg. I was forced down to a knee and I whipped around just in time to find Neo's leg right in front of my face.

A _crack _emanated from _my _nose this time and my head was rocked back. Still, she wasn't strong enough to throw my body weight and Aegis' away from her so I only rolled to my back, dazed.

She quickly planted her foot on my left wrist and I grimaced, reflexively releasing her umbrella.

Neo stooped to pick it up and I grabbed her foot with my right arm – Aegis was now collapsed – before she could move away. I jerked her legs out from under her and immediately threw myself on top of her. She tried to scramble away from me but I got a hold of her jacket and swatted her leg away from me when she nearly struck me in the head. I heaved myself up and took hold of her shoulder with my off hand, her legs were now pinned underneath one of my own.

My right arm cocked back and immediately descended, enough Aura lacing the jab to make it glow a muted blue in color.

The blow impacted her face with a loud _boom_ of discharged Aura but she only shattered into hundreds of glass pieces. My eyes widened and I threw myself forward, the _woosh_ of air mere centimeters behind my head informed me that I'd only just managed to avoid something unpleasant.

I got to my feet, Aegis raised and expanded once more, only to find Neo waiting for me, expressionless this time. She stood about ten feet away from me, her umbrella back on her shoulder. The two of us had moved quite a bit in our struggles – we were now on the opposite side of the clearing from where Ruby and I entered it. Behind me, an alleyway stretched out between another two warehouses and I imagined it possessed a dumpster and a sewer access point, just like I'd seen in the other one.

"A matching pair," I said to her in the silence, indicating my nose.

She grinned widely, though it was a sinister look on her rather than one of glee. That thought was only further solidified by the fact that half of her face was covered in shadows and the crooked, bloody nose I'd given her.

I raised Aegis when she darted toward me but she threw out her umbrella and hooked the end of it around my shield. Neo visibly braced herself and pulled me forward, or tried, anyway; I moved one foot back and pulled _her _off balance instead.

She stumbled forward, right into my shoulder check. The woman went flying with the Aura I laced into the blow and I staggered when I felt the energy leave me. I would need to be careful with how much I used, from here on out. I was probably sitting somewhere around a quarter of my full reserves.

Neo shook her head, scowling now, as she got to her feet. Behind her I heard more than saw the sounds of Ruby fighting Roman. I worried about her but I knew she could handle herself.

I trusted her. She had Jaune with her too. The boy might not be good for much but anyone could take advantage of an opening in combat. Anyone could get a lucky strike in.

Neo approached me again and did the same thing she did last time, she hooked the end of her umbrella around Aegis' edge. I braced myself but this time she did not pull me forward, she vaulted herself over the shield!

"Shit," I spat, whirling around to face her – she landed behind me – with Aegis thrust out in a shield slam.

The short woman waited for the shield to pass – she was farther away from me than I thought – and stepped inside my guard. Immediately, her umbrella was jabbed into my gut and I hunched over. Her leg came rocketing upward then and I managed to absorb some of it with my left forearm but the attack still caught me on the chin and sent me stumbling backward.

Or it would have, had she not hooked Aegis again. This time she had no trouble jerking me forward and I found myself staggering toward her. She wasted no time in smacking me across the face with her umbrella and I ended up half-falling against the alleyway wall.

Desperately, I buffeted the ground with my Semblance. The woman tripped and her attack was cut off, allowing me the precious moments I needed to find my feet. Immediately, I hid behind Aegis and jumped back, further into the alley, because the edges of my vision were starting to go white and it was getting harder and harder to concentrate.

Chains rattled above us and I glanced up to find a crane-like machine on one of the warehouse rooftops. Footsteps in front of me reminded me that I was currently in a fight and I looked back down to find Neo mere feet in front of me.

I swore again and backpedaled away from the woman, into another clearing. This one wasn't lit as well as the last one, due mostly to the crane superimposed between it and the moon. I could still see, but only just.

Neo rushed me, emerging from the alleyway like some kind of bloody wraith – the scowl on her face and the light color of her jacket certainly made that comparison seem apt in my mind.

I raised Aegis and blocked the woman's high kick, angling the shield's tip up after the attack and thrusting the spear point forward. She spun around it though and I rotated, accustomed to the move after having seen it nearly half a dozen times. Her umbrella jab was deflected and I collapsed Aegis just as my left fist rocketed forward.

The woman bent low to avoid it and sent her leg up, flying right at my face. I leaned back enough to avoid the blow and swung my own leg at her, forcing her to jump back lest she get a taste of her own medicine.

A gunshot announced itself with a _bang_ behind me and I jumped, turning to face-

A black ribbon attached to a wicked looking gun-blade flew in front of me and my left arm, urged more by a feeling of familiarity than anything, darted up to grab the object. I turned and _heaved_, throwing all my weight into spinning around while my mind still tried to catch up with what I was doing. This was instinct. I'd done this before. Many, many times before. I knew it was good…

Something shifted in the shadows as I spun around, following the ribbon's path as it ripped through the air. I was swinging Blake around-

'_Blake!'_

A grin on my face now, I angled Gambol Shroud's approach to that of Neo's position. The short woman was just straightening up, watching with narrowed eyes as she tried – and likely failed – to track the ribbon's progress in the dark.

Thankfully, Blake had an advantage that Neo and I lacked.

Night-vision.

She emerged from the shadows of an alleyway, riding on the momentum I provided her, like death itself. Expertly she manipulated her body mid-swing and threw her legs forward.

Neo, unprepared for the assault, only saw Blake when it was too late. The woman's eyes widened and she threw an arm up in front of her face just in time for RWEBY's cat faunus to plant a powerful double-heel kick on her chin. The woman was thrown away like a rag doll and I wasted no time in tossing Gambol Shroud back to Blake.

Then, Aegis expanded, I charged.

Blake reached Neo before I did and opened with a downward slash of her sheathe. The woman used her umbrella to block the blow, now scowling fiercely again and heavily favoring her left side – the right side of her face was a mess. Her jaw was clearly broken and her eye was already swelling to such an extent that it would be rendered useless in short order.

I interrupted the woman's counter by throwing my weight behind Aegis in a shoulder check. Blake spun behind me and Neo spun around the shield, to my weak side, just as she always did. Before I would be forced to compensate myself but now I only turned sideways and buffeted the ground with my Aura. By myself it would have been a useless gesture, meant only to delay, for Neo still would have been within my guard and on my unguarded side.

But not with my partner at my back.

Blake ducked under my left arm as it thundered forward in a jab. She agilely stepped around the leg I used to brace my punch and spun with her momentum to lash out at Neo with Gambol Shroud. The woman in question reeled back under our assault and I followed relentlessly, allowing Blake to retreat behind me again.

This time I ducked, throwing a leg forward, and sent some of my Aura at the woman's feet. She staggered back even as Blake used Aegis as a spring board, landing a vertical cut on Neo's torso and promptly using her Semblance to retreat when the woman retaliated.

I burst through the shadow of RWEBY's cat faunus even as the girl herself landed behind me. Our opponent's eyes widened and she back-pedaled further into the alleyway, back toward the warehouse where I left Ruby, Roman and Jaune, to avoid my shield slam. My left fist followed up with a jab and was promptly smacked aside by the umbrella just as I felt Blake's hand on my shoulder.

The cat faunus flipped over me and brought her leg down on Neo. The shorter woman only just blocked it with her umbrella but my left-handed jab caught her unawares, in the gut. She stumbled backward while Blake rolled behind me again and I charged forward, Aegis held aloft in front of me.

Neo grunted when my shield impacted her and I carried her back into the original clearing with the force behind the attack.

"Slingshot," Blake yelled.

I grinned widely, throwing the woman off my shield even as I turned to my side and grabbed Gambol Shroud with my left hand when Blake threw it to me. The ribbon attaching us was shorter now, only about two feet in length. Perfect for the new combat style Blake and I developed.

I collapsed Aegis and swung Blake around when I neared Neo. The cat faunus shot forward along the ground like a bullet and lashed out in a kick, an attack the woman only narrowed deflected. My teammate twisted nimbly in the air and used the umbrella like a spring board to launch herself back over my head. My left arm followed her progress of its own accord and I swung my right arm up in an uppercut in line with our momentum.

Neo's face erupted into a grimace when I landed a glancing blow on her even as I spun with my punch, briefly turning my back to the woman, and swung Blake forward. The cat faunus lashed out with her sheathe and our opponent took another two blows before she could retaliate. Our momentum now deteriorated, I pulled my left arm back at the same moment I used my Semblance to blast off the ground in a charge. Blake retreated and I advanced, Aegis' gauntlet thrust out in a jab that forced Neo to stumble back even more-

The cat faunus pulled desperately at the ribbon attaching us and I stumbled back, confused but heeding her-

The ground in front of us suddenly erupted in a volatile explosion, the heat from it had me covering my face with my free arm.

"What," I muttered, confused. Neo pulled her shattering trick again, leaving behind only shards of human-looking glass.

"Roman Torchwick, at your service kiddos," came a voice from somewhere above us. I looked up to find the man in question atop a warehouse, Neo at his side. The woman still looked furious.

I gave her a mocking salute – only just hiding a wince – and delighted when her eyes widened.

"As fun as this evening has been," the man continued even as Yang, Weiss, Ruby and Jaune joined Blake and I in the clearing. I gave my leader a once over and, satisfied that she appeared to be fine, looked back to Roman. "Neo and I are on a _very _tight schedule."

With that an airship rose up from somewhere deeper in the warehouses and quickly made its way over to the pair. RWEBY was kept at bay when Torchwick started firing more of those explosive salvos at us – I was forced to bring Aegis to bear to try and protect the team. I did not use Aura… I was fairly certain I was sitting at less than ten percent but without my Scroll I couldn't be certain of the exact amount.

"Damnit," I swore quietly when I saw the pair enter the airship. That was it then… at least we'd prevented them from stealing Schnee property but there was still the question of _why _they wanted to do that in the first place. I was just about one-hundred percent certain Weiss would want to pursue this. Given she was my teammate, it was only right that I help her, regardless of how difficult an opponent Neo was before Blake arrived.

There was no doubt in my mind now, looking back on the fight, that she would have beaten me. Had I been more prone to bouts of anger, it probably would have been even easier for her. She had an incredibly frustrating style of fighting, _especially _with the taunting grin and posing she did. It was only after I broke her nose – my lips twitched up into a grin – that she started taking me seriously. Which, of course, was when the fight went downhill. I could keep up with her… but keeping up with her and beating her were two completely different things. It was just my luck that I only needed to delay her in this case, until the rest of RWEBY arrived.

Had I needed to beat her single handedly… I might not have survived the night.

"Uh oh," Ruby muttered, drawing me from my thoughts. I, along with Blake, Yang, Weiss and Jaune, looked up at the air ship to find-

"Shit," I spat as the gatling gun unleashed a storm of bullets down upon us. Aegis was quickly brought to bear and a grimace erupted on my face when my arm immediately started to falter. Aura reinforced the limb and my vision threateningly flashed white. The only saving grace in the entire situation was the fact that Aegis was large enough to cover RWEBY and Jaune, all of whom were huddled behind me.

"We need to move," Ruby yelled over the cacophony of shrieking metal. "To the alleyway."

I grunted and lifted my right leg to move but my left leg faltered and I dropped suddenly to one knee. My team screamed and huddled behind me, Jaune too, presumably.

A scrap of metal flew over my head and a feeling of absolute dread hit me.

The bullets were shredding Aegis.

'_Shit. Shitshitshitshitshitshitshit!'_

I tried to urge my legs into standing but they faltered again, failing me under the weight of the assault and my arm was shaking under the strain of keeping Aegis-

Ruby suddenly appeared in front of me, between my shield and my torso, with her shoulder jammed up against Aegis. My eyes widened and met hers; she managed a grin for me even as Weiss appeared at her side, further lightening the weight being forced upon my arm.

"Come on big boy," Yang groused as she ducked under my right arm, situating it over her shoulder. She started to rise and I forced my legs to cooperate. My left leg shook-

Blake appeared under my other arm, keeping my leg from collapsing.

"Okay team RWEBY," Ruby cheered over the cacophony of deadly metal being flung at us. "Moooooove right!"

So we moved right. Awkwardly, unsteadily and very slowly, we moved right. Throughout it all I couldn't help but think what a great thing having a team to support you was. When one of us faltered, the rest of us covered for it. When someone needed help, we helped them.

That was a nice thought. A comforting thought.

We reached the alleyway without any futher issue and immediately darted further into the cover the warehouses provided us, just in case the airship pursed us. We needn't have worried, though. The mechanical whirring of the machine's engines faded shortly after we found cover.

Together with Jaune, team RWEBY breathed a sigh of relief.

The only casualty of the night was Aegis… it was more fit for a scrap metal bin than a battlefield now. I tried to collapse it but it only groaned and partially shrunk itself, ending up looking like some kind of demented buckler.

"Well," Ruby said, grinned sardonically. "Looks like we need to prioritize rebuilding Aegis, huh?"

* * *

**A/N: **Happy Friday to you all! Let me say that this chapter was a blast to write! I really enjoyed exploring combat with Neo and the teamwork Enten and Blake have built up. Jaune's situation is finally coming to an end and with that, I guess you might say a new 'arc' of the story will begin!

(01/16/2016) Revised.

Let me know what you think! About Aegis' upgrades, the fight scenes, Jaune's situation, I love hearing my readers' thoughts! A review goes a long way to helping me summon up the urge to write too – it really gets the mental gears moving, even if it's just a word or two!

**Jackpotdante: **Characters that do things for no reason are either insane or Mary Sues They had a reason… _have _a reason for what they did! No worries there!

**Crazygamer921: **I do not speak Danish – Google speaks it for me! I just want to visit Scandinavia so I thought: hey, why not make HRCN based off of the Scandinavian countries (with an honorable mention to Finland, of course).

**RisingDaemon: **No cheat-death mechanics I'm afraid – Remnant seems a little too realistic within its own rules to allow for something so fantastical, I think. I will say this though… Enten's Aura is much more versatile than anyone else's in this story thus far. Not only in how he manipulates it, but it how it interacts with its surroundings too!

Thanks to all my readers, my reviewers, my favoriters and my followers!

Till next time,

-Phailen


	15. Chapter 15

I hesitantly prodded at my nose and winced when it exploded into an onslaught of pain and agony. Without any adrenaline in my system I felt every single nerve ending and all of them were protesting the fact that I'd allowed my nose to get kicked in by a crazy bint with an umbrella.

Still, I continued poking and prodding. My Aura was already starting to heal the injury and I didn't want it set wrongly; it was an – up until now – unforeseen consequence of being able to rapidly heal. My burns and bruises were already mostly gone and I had somewhere around a quarter of my Aura now, about twenty minutes after we'd narrowly escaped being skewered by a gatling gun. But my nose? My nose remained an issue…

"What are you doing," Yang fussed, crossing the brightly-lit warehouse and pulling my hands away from my face. "Leave it alone! Touching it will just make it worse!"

That attracted the attention of both Blake and Weiss too. The heiress turned away from the Schnee Dust Company crate that she demanded to see once Torchwick and Neo were gone while the cat faunus stopped poking around in the darker corners of the warehouse.

"Trying to set it," I responded, bringing my hands back up.

The blonde swatted them away again. "You don't know how to do that. Plus, you can't even _see _if you're doing it right!"

"Alright," I allowed. "You're right. But it needs to be done and I sure as hell don't want to wait until we get back to Beacon-"

"It'll only take fifteen minutes on Bumblebee," Yang protested. "In fact, let's go now, while Ruby and Jaune are still talking."

I shook my head. "I'm seeing this through. Too much time and effort invested in this to leave before I see it resolved."

"Sometimes broken bones need to be _re-broken_," Blake observed.

"Then the nurse will re-break-"

"Just go back to Beacon with me," Yang growled.

"No."

The blonde huffed and threw her arms in the air. "Idiot boy," she muttered as she stalked away. "Stupid, stupid, _stupid._"

"Resetting bones hurts," Blake elaborated.

"Yeah," I groused, reaching for the mangled remains of my shield. "So does breaking them in the first place. I'll be fine."

The cat faunus fell silent for a moment and only Yang's ranting and Weiss' rummaging through the crate could be heard. I shifted – I was sitting on the ground against one of the metal scaffolding constructs and it _was not_ comfortable – and turned my attention back to Aegis.

"Jaune was bloody too," Blake said, sitting down across from me and nimbly manipulating a piece of the shield into collapsing.

"Thanks," I muttered. She wanted to know about Jaune, then? "Do you want to know why Jaune was bloody or are you making a point that he got beaten up too?"

"Why?"

"Dunno. He was like that when Ruby and I found him." She only continued staring then and I had a feeling I knew what she wanted. "I'm betting he heard those thugs mention they were searching for Schnee crates when he was walking home and tried to stop them. He's got a thing for Weiss, after all, and the most direct route to his house runs straight through these warehouses."

"He was outnumbered."

"Ruby would've done the same thing," I countered.

"She can fight."

"But not against twelve hired thugs, Torchwick and Neo."

Blake remained silent for several seconds, her hands poking and prodding at Aegis in an effort to get it to fold in on itself, before she spoke. "Naïve."

"Are heroes naïve, or are they heroic?"

"Naïve."

The edge of my lips quirked upward, disturbing my mutilated nose and sending a wince down my spine. I really should have taken Yang up on her offer but I also wanted to see this to its conclusion. Never in my life had I received such a beating and I was going to make sure that it didn't all go to waste.

"I don't think those vagabonds took anything," Weiss muttered as she walked over to us. The attempted theft of Schnee property had the heiress in a sour mood. I suppose it should have been obvious, this trigger, but it never occurred to me that an attempt at stealing from her family would enrage her so. It had to happen often, given how large the company was…

The girl huffed even as she crouched down, dusted off a spot on the floor and sat down. Her knees were immediately drawn up to her chest and she put her arms around them.

"Oh," she grimaced, looking toward Blake and I. "_That_ looks bad."

"Yeah," I said, pausing my efforts to collapse Aegis. "It's not going to be useable anymore but Ruby and I are rebuilding-"

"No, no, no. Your nose."

My nose? Sure it was broken but that would be healed later, once we were back at Beacon. Aegis wasn't so easily repaired. I'd need to spend all of my free time over the next week in the workshop to get it into fighting condition before our next dueling class. The headmaster's app would be pushed back, my homework and studies would suffer and so would development on the new shield… but it had to be done.

Because Ruby and Jaune Arc were both of the opinion that going into a fight at 3-to-1 odds was a good idea.

A sighed escaped me as I prodded another piece of Aegis into collapsing. It was a small wonder that the shield hadn't just fallen completely apart by now. The state it was in would mean repairs were going to take a substantial amount of time.

…Maybe Ruby and I could finish the new one in time for the dueling-

No. There was no way that would be done in less than a week. Maybe… _maybe_ we could just build the shield portion in time but I doubt I'd be able to channel my Aura through it and I _knew _the artillery bit wasn't going to be anywhere near close to being finished. That portion of the weapon was actually something completely unprecedented – no other known weapon could fire a bullet even close to the size of the one Ruby and I planned on using.

"Hey! Enten? Are you even listening to me," Weiss said.

"Huh? Oh – right. Yeah, my nose is broken too."

She snorted. "Oh, yeah, my face is ruined but the shield is hurt too. Can't have that," she snarked.

"Shields save lives," Blake muttered, working together with me to get the last piece of Aegis to collapse. It slid into place with a horrible scratching sound.

"I'll have you know my nose saves lives too," I returned.

Weiss threw her hand over her eyes and sighed, prompting me to grin. Blake mirrored my expression and I put Aegis back on my right arm. At least it still provided me a little protection as a gauntlet… if I could look past the fact that it might break apart at the first blow it took.

"They were really aiming to kill us weren't they," the Schnee heiress muttered then, deflating as she rested her head on her knees and stared at the mangled remains of my shield.

"I guess you could say they were really trying to _gun _us down," Yang said, a half-hearted grin on her face as she approached us. I studied her face for a moment but saw no anger there anymore. Hopefully she was over trying to get me back to Beacon – I'd go back once this entire situation was resolved.

"It feels different when Grimm are trying to kill me… those people made a choice to do what they did," Weiss continued, studiously ignoring the blonde's pun.

I swallowed, at a loss for words. I could tell this was bothering Weiss; it was bothering me too, honestly. Torchwick, Neo and those thugs all made a conscious decision to do what they did. They honestly wanted to kill us, not because they were mindless beasts, but simply because we were _there_.

"It'll get easier," Yang muttered, placing herself next to Weiss and putting an arm around her shoulders. "I met those guys before – the hirelings Enten and Ruby described, that is. They work for a guy named Junior and they're all scum. They'll do anything for some money."

The Schnee heiress made a despairing noise that almost sounded like a groan. "Why can't they just leave my family alone?"

My uneasiness fled me in the face of Weiss' depressed expression. I didn't have an answer for her. I could think of no comforting words or sentiments to alleviate the girl's worries. I knew now that she must have been hiding her fears, her concerns behind a neutral front and her fervent demands to see the SDC crate were probably a way for her to distract herself from them.

"Your family is a target," Blake said quietly. "They make dust."

"We're just trying to live our lives," Weiss said desperately. "We never asked for any of this. We never wanted… Why do they hate us?"

I realized now that this went deeper than just this incident alone. She was speaking of the animosity held for her company in general by the faunus. Maybe seeing evidence of another attempted theft brought to the forefront of her mind the White Fang and their efforts to cripple her family's company and smear their name.

"You're a target," I parroted. "You produce dust and dust is dangerous. Dust is power. That's what they want: power… Power to change the world."

"Is this about the White Fang," Yang asked and I saw Weiss glumly nod her head.

"I don't know if all those rumors are true. My father never shared much about what the company did. I don't know how he's… _we've _treated faunus but…" The girl swallowed. "I don't want to be hated anymore. I want to change my company. I want to make it better but… but sometimes…"

Blake made a sad sound in the back of her throat, something in between a whine and a groan. "They're not all bad… the faunus. Just trying to live their-"

"So are we," Weiss snapped. "So am _I!_ I haven't done anything to them but that doesn't matter! They'll still hate me because of my family name and then they'll turn around and complain that people hate _them _because of some superficial physical characteristics? They're hypocrites! All of them!"

"You know," I said slowly. "I never thought about it that way."

It was an interesting point from an angle that I'd never considered. I'd always been on the faunus side of the fence as far as my viewpoint was concerned. To see things from Weiss' perspective was… eye opening, to say the least.

"People do more than hate the faunus," Blake said darkly.

"The faunus do more than hate _me_," Weiss said emphatically, glaring at RWEBY's B. "They- When I was young, a faunus broke into my family's estate… I never saw him- her… whatever… but, I heard some servants talking…"

She swallowed and looked down at the ground again. "He… _It_ wanted to get to _me_. I was _four_. And he- Who knows what he wanted…"

The girl trailed off then and an uneasy silence descended over us. I didn't quite realize how deep-seeded Weiss' fear truly was. I thought at first that it was just brought on by her father's angry rants on the faunus but to actually have the subject of that rant do exactly what her father warned her they would?

Weiss grew up with a real-live boogeyman, and she didn't have an adult intelligence to use as a crutch.

"The Grimm are those scary monsters hiding in your closet. For me, it was the faunus."

I became aware of Blake's stare then, followed shortly after by Yang as well. Both of them were looking at me, both of them wanted _me _to solve this but… but in reality I was just as lost as they were.

How could I know what to say to help Weiss? She dealt with this fear since she was old enough to understand language and it wasn't about to go away just because I made a pretty speech. The world didn't work like that. It _never _worked like that.

I sighed heavily. The truth was a good start, I supposed. It would probably hurt her to hear it but the sooner she did, the sooner she could start healing.

"I can't say anything to help you, Weiss," I started, ignoring Yang's growl in favor of meeting the Schnee heiress' eyes. "Fear as deep-seeded as that doesn't just magically disappear overnight with some pretty words. It stays with you, always there, forever waiting for a moment of weakness."

_Blood flecked armor, spinning. Closer. A woman's scream-_

I shook my head. "All you can learn to do is deal with it.

"But that's not necessarily a bad thing," I continued when the girl frowned. "That fear is part of who you are. Part of what makes you Weiss Schnee... Now, I can't speak for Blake or Yang, but I'm glad to have Weiss Schnee as my friend. Not Weiss the singer, the dancer or the heiress, but Weiss, the W on team RWEBY.

"That Weiss, the one _I _know, has friends to help her through her fears. She has a leader that would readily drop everything she was doing to help out and those other three people on the team aren't that bad either."

The white haired girl laughed under breath and a small smile broke out on her face. Progress, at least.

"Besides," I said, fishing out a picture of Phoebe. This was a more recent image that I asked mom to take after the conversation wherein Yang learned that Blake was a faunus – I wanted a photo of Phoebe in Yang's orange beanie and mom delivered. My younger sister had a wide, toothy smile on her face as she stared up at the camera and in her hand was clutched a crayon. A half-finished drawing of a figure with a shield lay on the ground behind her and her ears poked out the top of the orange fabric, carefully modified to allow her to wear the hat comfortably.

I smiled softly even as held the picture up. Yang made a pleased sound in the back of her throat.

"Not _all _faunus are out to get Weiss Schnee," I said. "This one in particular happens to _love _the way she does her hair and has even taken to calling her 'Snow Angel'."

She grimaced and I laughed. "I _may _have mentioned your nickname to her in one of my letters."

"You wretched barbarian," the girl groused but it was a happy inflection that infused her voice now.

"I've got the nose for it," I quipped, prompting a laugh to burst from the girl.

"And the brain," Yang inserted, sardonic. She, along with Blake, was smiling softly now. There was something like approval or gratefulness in the blonde's expression; I saw it in her eyes and in the curve of her lips.

"You know," Weiss said quietly, briefly hugging Yang to her side before disentangling herself from the blonde's embrace. She turned to study me through narrowed eyes. "You seem older than you let on sometimes, Enten. Like you know things you shouldn't."

I snorted even as I saw Yang tense behind the heiress. Weiss was observant, had she seen the blonde do that there might have been trouble, luckily she was facing me and Blake; the cat faunus was much more in control of her emotions.

"I'm actually from another dimension. So that helps," I said lightly.

"Uh huh," Weiss drawled. "And I bet you could fly and the Grimm were civilized citizens of the realm."

"No Grimm," I said, shaking my head. "We actually called them the boogeymen and yes, I could fly like an eagle."

"An eagle?"

"A Nevermore's younger sibling."

The Schnee heiress snorted and rose to her feet, stretching out her back as she did so. "Well, _I'm _going to find Ruby because I don't want to spend all night here waiting for Jaune to make up his mind."

With that, she walked out of the warehouse with her shoulders back and her head held high. I was left with Yang and Blake. I stood too.

"Well that went well," I said airily. "Conquering a young girl's fears. Dropping the bomb that is my origin. All in a night's work."

"Yeah," Yang said dryly, accepting my hand up. "You sure know how to run your mouth."

"Says the girl who was practically begging me to save the situation at hand not five minutes ago."

"I was not _begging_… I was _asking_. Nonverbally."

"Right," I said slowly. To Blake: "So, I've spilled my secret. When are you going to spill yours?"

The girl rolled her eyes at me. "Didn't know you could _fly_."

* * *

_Moments Later…_

"-but you didn't! You stood up to him!"

"Yeah, then I ran away and got myself into even _more_ trouble! Let's face it, Ruby," Jaune said. "I'm just not cut out for Beacon…"

"You don't mean that! It's your dream to be a hunter – you told me so yourself! You're just going to give up?!"

I tuned out both Ruby's and Jaune's voices as I approached Weiss with Yang and Blake. The heiress was currently observing the conversation from near one of the scaffolding constructs.

"Hey Weiss," Yang called quietly, bumping her shoulder against the heiress'. "Jaune being stubborn?"

"He's actually being rational," the girl responded. "He's making the argument that he's a liability to his team – which he is – and Ruby is trying to convince him that he's wrong – which he isn't."

"Huh. If he can realize that then maybe he _isn't_ a liability."

Weiss shrugged. "Realizing what the problem is doesn't mean anything if he doesn't do anything about it."

This time Yang shrugged. "Removing himself from the equation _is _a solution… just, a bad one."

"Ruby doesn't want that," Blake muttered.

"Right," Weiss said. "So hopefully Jaune gets fed up and leaves soon or… well, Ruby probably won't give up on him though… Did you know that Cardin tried to use Jaune against you, Enten?"

That was news to me. Whatever the bully had on the Arc boy must have been bad.

I shook my head, silent, but upon realizing Weiss was facing away from me I verbalized my response: "I didn't know."

"Apparently _that's _why Jaune left Beacon. He said he didn't want to be a burden anymore. Pyrrha disagreed with him on that point, the way he described it, it sounds like they had quite a fight…"

"Pyrrha has a crush on Jaune," Blake noted.

"Yeah," Yang nodded. "Poor Pyrrha. That couldn't have been easy on her. We should check in with her when we're back at Beacon."

"Did Ruby think this time before she jumped into this," I wondered idly, watching as the girl struggled fruitlessly to win Jaune over. Yang made a disgruntled sound but my broken nose trumped her displeasure. Good intent or not, we should have had a plan going into that warehouse. Had we been able to get Jaune away from Torchwick and his thugs, we wouldn't have needed the entire team. Instead Ruby and I charged headlong into the warehouse and ended up almost dying because of it.

"Going in with a plan to convince Jaune would have made things easier," I argued. "We know he's being bullied. We know he's too proud to accept help. He's probably frustrated that he's so incompetent in combat… Actually, having _Ruby _out there arguing with him is probably a bad idea; as a leader she's everything he's not! A prodigy with her scythe, her sound tactical mind, she's a master weapon smith. Her grades are even top notch!"

They didn't say anything for a few seconds and we were treated to the sounds of RWEBY's and JNPR's leaders arguing. Eventually, Weiss broke the silence.

"So… what do you suggest, then?"

"I _suggest_ we have a talk with Ruby about thinking things through."

"About the Jaune problem, Enten," Yang said shortly. I didn't need to look at her to know she was annoyed with me. The fact that she didn't challenge me was good, though; it probably meant she agreed with my thoughts, if not the way I expressed them.

"Him? Uh," I paused. "I'm more inclined to beat some sense into him right now. _He's _the reason this entire fiasco even happened. After that… well, he either goes back to Beacon or he doesn't. I don't care."

And it was true. It was entirely Jaune Arc's fault that team RWEBY almost died tonight and I was just annoyed enough with him to knock some sense into him, literally. Whether or not he ended up back at Beacon was a nonissue for me.

"He needs to get better on his own," Blake stated.

Weiss snorted. "That's worked out _so well _for him thus far… My sister was like him, when she was younger. She wanted to be a singer but she thought she could do it all on her own – our caretakers had to sign both myself and her up for lessons so that she didn't think it was _just _her that needed help."

"Watch out folks," Yang grinned, "we've got a natural-born singer over here!"

The Schnee heiress colored. "I'm not saying I _didn't _need lessons – I just didn't care to become a singer. My sister is the only reason I know how to do it… Well, that and because my father thought it would be a good skill for me to have."

She sounded bitter and I knew that control over her life was a sore spot for Weiss. That and her social seclusion. And the faunus. Growing up as Schnee heiress must have been difficult…

I sighed, tired and frustrated and ready to put this entire fiasco behind me. "Just tell Pyrrha to offer lessons to JNPR as a whole and disguise it as some kind of team training. That'll take care of Jaune's lack of combat skills. I still want some time to talk to Ruby, by the way."

"Go easy on her," Yang said quietly. "She means well… just, she will _always _do what she thinks is right, even if the odds are stacked against her. I think it's one of her most admirable qualities… She just needs some restraint."

"Restraint would be nice," I muttered, wincing when my nose twitched and pain lanced across my face. "That quality becomes less than admirable when doing the 'right' thing involves charging headlong into situations where we're outnumbered 3 to 1."

"Well, it's better than sitting by and doing nothing while innocent people are hurt," Yang argued.

"I'm not saying we should have left him. I don't want _anyone_ hurt, much less dead. What I want is a little forethought from her. We both saw Jaune with those guys in there, he was in _no _immediate danger whatsoever _and _he was moving under his own power. We could have waited until we had a chance to grab him or tried to make contact with him…_something_ just-"

"We all made it out alive! Jaune's fine and the team is-"

"_This _time. _This _time we made it out alright because apparently Ruby knew those men were pushovers. The _problem _comes from the part where she neglected to inform me of that little-"

"So _trust _her!"

"I do trust her," I said, perhaps a little more harshly than I meant to; I blamed freshly broken nose. "Enough to follow her blindly into a situation that, from my point of view, looked like a _fucking _death sentence!"

Yang didn't respond, instead her eyes focused on something behind me, where Jaune and Ruby-

'_Oh.'_

Sure enough, when I turned around it was to the sight of both of them staring at me; one was surprised, one looked hurt.

"Do you really think I'd lead you to your death," Ruby asked, frowning slightly and fiddling with the hem of her cloak.

I swallowed, steeling myself. "Intentionally? No. What I'm worried about is your habit of acting before you _think_ about what you want to do."

Her brow furrowed. "I spent a week with you in the library studying up on our hierarchy."

"They weren't our hierarchy at the time," I said, shaking my head. "Until you got hooked in by a sob story."

"I didn't get hooked by a sob story!"

"Then what was it? Why did you accept their invitation then and there?"

The girl's mouth moved but no words escaped her, I thought I noticed her blinking more often too.

"She gets it," Yang stated firmly.

"Does she," I asked the blonde. Then, to Ruby: "Do you? Do you understand why I'm angry? We could have _died _tonight, Ruby."

"But… we didn't," she said meekly.

I closed my eyes, desperately wishing I could tell what Blake and Weiss thought of this. But they were behind me and apparently reluctant to join the conversation now. Evidently I needed to be the bad guy. This _had _to be said.

"We got lucky. There was only one unknown hiding in the shadows this time. It could have just as easily been two, or three, or-"

"Okay," Ruby shouted, now visibly upset. "I get it. But I couldn't just leave Jaune there!"

"I'm not asking you to leave Jaune anywhere," I said quickly. "I'm asking you to _think_ before you act! First the hierarchy, now tonight… Ruby, this has to stop."

"There was the note incident with HRCN too," Weiss added and if Ruby wasn't already in tears that pushed her over the edge.

"I'm sorry," the girl sniffled. "I didn't think…" She took a shaky breath and Yang moved forward immediately, tossing me a displeased look on her way to comfort her little sister.

I shrugged helplessly. I wasn't going to apologize for saying what needed to be said… but that didn't mean I enjoyed doing that to Ruby. Her naivety, her innocence was what made her, her. Unfortunately, the lifestyle we chose did not allow us to keep that innocence. We had to grow up and if that meant I needed to be an asshole then I'd do it.

A heavy sigh escaped me just as Jaune shuffled awkwardly from foot to foot. That reminded me of the entire reason Ruby and I first ventured into the city: getting the boy back to Beacon.

"You going back to Beacon," I asked him gruffly and the boy jumped. Given the tense atmosphere I didn't blame him.

"I can't," he sighed. "I'm just a liability."

"Yeah," I agreed, noting how his shoulders slumped further. "If JNPR went out on a mission right now then someone would need to babysit you, not only that but you've prevented your team from joining-"

"_Thank you. Enten."_

I glanced in Yang's direction, finding the girl with an irritated look on her face. My words probably weren't doing anything to help Ruby, especially considering that Jaune wasn't going to return to Beacon. Without our leader arguing his case, I didn't think anyone else on RWEBY would…

Weiss, I knew, agreed with me. The boy was a liability and it'd be best for everyone if he left. Blake was neutral over the entire thing and Yang… Yang might've tried to get the boy to return, if only to please Ruby, but right now the little sister in question needed comforting, the blonde was in no state to convince Jaune to return.

"Well," I said slowly, searching for a way to end the conversation and get back to The Academy. "Guess that's that, then? Don't pull this again," I said to Jaune as I tapped the mangled remains of Aegis on my arm, "because we won't be there to pull your ass out of the fire next time."

The blond nodded dejectedly and, his posture the epitome of defeat, turned to walk from the warehouse.

"Jaune," Weiss abruptly barked from behind me.

I turned, startled, just in time to see the girl stalk past me, a scowl on her face. She marched straight up to the blond and brought her face up to within a few inches of his. The boy's skin colored and he recoiled but Weiss remained unbothered by it.

"You'll be returning to Beacon with us," the girl stated and I only just kept my disbelieving scoff repressed. Weiss arguing Ruby's case? I never saw it coming but then of all the members in RWEBY, Weiss' actions were easily the most difficult for me to predict – even Blake, the girl that displayed as much emotion as a plank of wood, was easier for me to read because I was so used to picking up on her subtle cues.

But not Weiss. She consciously kept her emotions hidden behind what she called her 'public face' and she did it very, _very _well. It was a rare thing for RWEBY to see her relax – she usually only allowed her defenses to fall when we had our nightly talks.

"You're going to start training with your team and when Pyrrha offers to help you with your swordsmanship, you'll accept her offer," the girl continued.

"But-"

"You're also going to start acting like the leader JNPR deserves. You need to get your team into a hierarchy and to do that you need to start impressing some second years in dueling class."

"I can't-"

"Yes, you can. And you will."

"No I can't," the boy exclaimed, very clearly frustrated. "Cardin keeps me running around like some personal errand boy and Pyrrha _doesn't get it_ and I don't even have enough time to keep up with my homework let alone get any decent training time in! Don't you think I would have _done _something by now if I could?! Don't you think I'm just as _angry _about this as my team?! They deserve better! That's why I'm leaving!"

Weiss remained motionless throughout the rant, arms crossed and I imagined she had her patented 'Weiss-is-displeased' look on her face.

"Do you want to go to Beacon? It's your dream, isn't it," the girl asked.

"Yes-"

"Then why are you leaving?"

"Because Cardin-"

"So Cardin is forcing you out? It must be something bad, if you're giving up on your _dream_."

"It is! I can't…"

"Must be more important to you than your dream," Weiss observed.

The boy glumly shook his head. "It… I'll be kicked out if he tells. It's a no-win situation…"

My eyes narrowed and I brought out my much-used and much-loved Scroll. My fingers quickly opened the remote application that allowed me access to Beacon's main _Pidgeon _server. It took longer than I was used to, mostly because I had to route through Vale's public-

I shut down the application immediately and instead navigated into my second memory partition. That required a restart of the Scroll but if I was going to be accessing something over public wavelengths then I was going to be doing it from my backup operating system. It would be slower still but the extra security was more than worth it.

The remote application was opened again and shortly there-after, Beacon's _Pidgeon _server allowed me to access it. It was less than ideal to use it as a landing area through which I could access Beacon's records but the firewalls surrounding the school's virtual presence would not allow me to access its servers directly. I needed to come from within the network and luckily I happened to have access to the network itself – something that _was_ publicly available, unlike the server that held the student records...

I was greeted with the query I used to find Jaune's address earlier alongside a message stating that I did not have permission to see the database in question. My access was already pulled then… _someone _was doing something…

I shook my head. I didn't have time to think about Ozpin or whoever was manipulating my permissions with the insight of a mastermind. Jaune was being secretive about something, something large enough that he felt it would get him expelled from Beacon Academy. That implied that the Headmaster didn't know… or at least Jaune _thought _he didn't know. From what little interaction I had with the man, I knew Ozpin to be the kind of person that almost always knew more than he should. Or rather, his _friends _knew more than they should because there was no way that one man could be so omnipresent.

Weiss' raised voice brought me out of my thoughts – she sounded angry now – and I closed the database then quickly went about accessing the file system. I normally never had access to see student applications – they were actually located on another server but I'd… stumbled across the directory in my spare time – but if this mysterious benefactor was as amiable and knowledgeable as I thought…

Sure enough, the first year students' applications were revealed to me without any trouble. The second, third and fourth years' remained off-limits, though… that was a shame.

'_Oh well,'_ I thought, quickly locating the file named 'JauneArcApplication' and opening it.

Immediately my eyebrows rose. I was expecting some kind of secret murder or maybe a falsified report of his skill with a blade…but this?

This was an entirely falsified _application_.

I looked back up just in time to find Jaune start to walk toward the warehouse's exit door and my mind immediately burst into a storm of activity.

The Arc boy applied to Beacon with a falsified report on his abilities. Somehow Cardin found out and now the bully was using it as leverage to make JNPR's leader do whatever he wanted. This was indeed serious enough to get him kicked out, too. At the same time, though… it would have been clear he lied about his abilities since the very first dueling class… Surely the Headmaster and Professor Goodwitch would have caught that.

I nodded. That was a safe assumption to make. Ozpin and Goodwitch likely already knew that Jaune faked his application so he probably had nothing to worry about. As long as this information didn't make it up to, say, the Council of Three that ruled Vale, the boy would probably be fine to continue attending Beacon.

My eyes narrowed just as Jaune reached the exit door. Ruby was wailing next to me and Yang was whispering something to her – I pushed down the residual guilt I carried from doing that to the girl – while Blake and Weiss were stoically and angrily watching the boy go, respectively.

I could probably convince Jaune to return to Beacon… but did I want to? Would it benefit RWEBY to have him at the school?

Well, it certainly wouldn't hurt us. The boy was JNPR's burden to deal with, and what a _large _burden he was! His _0-5 _record was single handedly keeping his team from getting into a hierarchy _and _having an absolutely commanding lead in the rankings-

"Jaune," I barked, just in time to stop him before he shut the door. He turned, a heavy scowl on his face.

"Look-"

"A bow, huh? Never seen you use it before," I noted, watching with no small amount of amusement as his face went from annoyed to flabbergast in two seconds flat. Of all the weapons to lie about, a bow had to be the worst one in the books. Ye'lo Malamig was the only student at Beacon that I knew used a bow; it was a rare weapon of choice.

"Wha- How…?"

"And three years of training in Mistral," I continued reading – that struck me as odd… Malamig was from Mistral, if I remembered correctly. "It's a small miracle you didn't know Pyrrha's name, then."

The boy shut his mouth with an audible click even as Weiss gave me an incredulous look. A glance at Blake told me the faunus was observing me silently, neutrally, and the two sisters on team RWEBY looked just as confused as the Schnee heiress.

"Is this your secret," I asked him.

Like a tennis match back on Earth, the girls' heads all swiveled to him. I fought back an amused smile.

"Uh…"

"Fine," I said, looking back down. "You've got a year of survival-"

"_Yes_," the boy bit out. "Yes! That's- How?!... What?"

I ignored the spluttering, I had a point to make.

"Do you really think this has Professor Goodwitch, much less Headmaster Ozpin, fooled?"

He stayed silent and shrugged his shoulders. "I was never kicked out…"

"So why would they choose to kick you out now? Why not in the first week, when you clearly proved yourself incapable with a bow by-way of _never using one_?"

"What are you guys talking about," Yang asked, her arm still across Ruby's shoulders. The younger girl herself was staring at me, an awed look on her face. It reminded me of the feelings her skill in the workshop induced in me…

Impulsive she may be, Ruby was still my leader. My friend. I wanted Jaune back at Beacon so that RWEBY had a shot at the top spot but I'd be lying to myself if I didn't admit at least a small part of me wanted to do this for Ruby. We still needed to work on the not-thinking problem she possessed but I could start mending bridges by extending an olive branch: getting Jaune back to Beacon.

It was mutually beneficial solution, after all. Ruby would be pleased and JNPR would continue their downward slump.

RWEBY was more than ready to take their place.

"They know, Jaune," I emphasized. "They've always known. Why else would my access- Why else would you still be here after eight weeks?"

He looked down and I noticed Weiss' eyes widening. Blake had caught on long ago, she was actually moving to read over my shoulder-

"Ask Jaune," I said, shaking my head and moving my Scroll away from her prying eyes. I'd tell her later, when Jaune wasn't around. "It's his business, nosy."

"You really think they know," the Arc boy asked quietly, pulling my attention away from a now-scowling Blake and back to him.

"I do."

"Then Cardin…"

"Ignore him. Be the leader JNPR deserves," I said quietly, solemnly. Speaking of Cardin, I'd have to find a way to get it through his head that The Council of Three holds sway over Beacon. It was common knowledge but it probably wouldn't occur to the boy that he could threaten Jaune with reporting the application to them if the threats involving the headmaster failed. After all, if the headmaster wouldn't investigate Jaune then The Council certainly would. Academic misconduct, fraud especially, was heavily frowned upon when huntresses and hunters did it.

They held in their hands the lives of Vale's citizens, after all.

Jaune released a heavy breath and, after a pause, nodded. "I will," he said, resolute. "I'll get better. I'll train with Pyrrha and… and I'll start having team training sessions, like you guys!"

Ruby gasped. "We can come up with battle plans together!" The girl abruptly left her sister's embrace and started sprinting over to Jaune.

Half way there, though, she paused. Instead she lunged at Weiss and gave the Schnee heiress a bear hug that actually lifted the girl off of her feet. She dropped the protesting girl a few seconds later and then threw herself at me, wrapping her arms around my waist and trying to lift me the same way she did Weiss.

"I'm a little heavier than the dainty heiress," I muttered, smiling softly and returning the embrace; it was good to see her happy again. I decided to lift _her _off of her feet instead which prompted a round of raucous laughter from the girl. "You alright?"

She nodded, her grin faltering. "Sorry about-"

I mussed her hair, cutting her off. "We'll worry about that later. Go see your boyfriend."

"He's not," she gasped, swatting my hand away and sticking her tongue out at me. I made a shooing motion at her and she pulled her eyelid down for good measure but eventually darted over to the Arc boy, already speaking emphatically before she stopped in front of him.

"That was a nice thing you did," Yang murmured, bumping her shoulder against mine as she watched her sister and Jaune leave the warehouse. "You might act all cold, but I _know _you have a heart of gold under all that asshole-ish exterior."

I shrugged and decided to ignore her second comment. "Weiss' questioning clued me in. Without her Jaune would have been long gone by now."

"He may be a liability," the Schnee heiress said, still irritably dusting herself off, when Blake, Yang and I looked toward her, "but he's Ruby's friend too. If nothing else, he needed to go back to Beacon for _her_."

A nod of my head accompanied Yang's laughter. A partial lie was better than a full one, after all. I _did _want Jaune back at Beacon, in part, because it would make Ruby happy.

"Who woulda thought," the blonde said, grinning widely. "Weiss and Enten, the two people who thought Jaune should _leave _Beacon ended up convincing him to stay."

"Friendship is a powerful thing," I muttered, starting after my leader.

My nose might be shattered. It might have to be broken again to be set and Aegis-

My shield, still in its bracer form, chose that moment to split in two with a pathetic grinding sound. It promptly clattered to the warehouse floor. I stopped and stared at the remains, dejected.

"So much for the immovable object," Blake muttered as she walked by me, for once _directly _provocative and I knew from the sound of her voice that she was grinning. Yang and Weiss wasted no time in laughing.

* * *

Malamig Ink – Scroll OS [Version 3.4.315] © Malamig United. All rights reserved.

Initializing….

Welcome, MelkwegE….

C:\Users\MelkwegE: **vim z:\classMateNotes\firstYear\JYDE\MalamigY;**

…Opening file "MalamigY"…

_Ye'lo Malamig. Bow fighter. Weapon name: unknown. Bladed longbow, lightweight material, likely unable to conduct Aura. JYDE's Y. Hair color: dark brown. Slight build. Semblance: ability to slide across ground? No, was able to briefly slide across air. Uses Aura as a physical spring board? No – doesn't jump, only slides. Arena floor wet after her matches – Ice? Possible. Does not use it with her hands, only her feet. Preference or necessity? Edit: Used with hands as last ditch effort today. First loss, against EMRD's leader. Record: now 4-1. Bad match-up. Notable win: Nora. Very agile fighter. Relies solely upon arrows for offense. Shield counters._

wq!

Writing file….

Quitting….

C:\Users\MelkwegE: **logout –f;**

Closing session….

Good bye, MelkwegE….

* * *

**A/N: **Character progression! Techy stuff! SCIENCE!

(01/16/2016) Revised.

And so ends Jaune's arc… get it? Because an arc in a story is a subplot and Jaune's last name is Arc… Yeah?

But no, crappy puns aside, I'm not done with him yet… I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. It was pretty easy for me to write which I've taken to meaning that it – hopefully – flows well and logically with plenty of interesting character interaction sprinkled in for flavor!

Now, onto my loyal subjects…

**Sezu-Ni: **Right on point! Let's hope Ruby slows down and thinks things through after this chapter, huh? Thanks for your review!

**Edgelesspigeon: **brainthief tends to make his points pointy. I agree with you, though, Ruby has a very, _very _simple way of judging right from wrong and given her desire to be a hero, the 'right' choice will always win out. It'll be a point of character progression for her throughout my story, she'll have to learn that right doesn't necessarily mean easy or heroic or good.

**Brainthief: **Welcome back! Heavy shield on chain does not a good ranged weapon make, this is true! Don't worry about the specifics over the new shield, that'll be coming in the next few chapters, it's still very much in the design/prototype phase for Enten and Ruby anyway. Glad you liked Neo's fight – I had a great time writing it! As for Jaune's troubles (which still aren't over…), I hope you found the scene to your satisfaction. I actually ended up using your point that Cardin might try to use Jaune against Enten as a way to get Jaune away from Beacon. It was/is a brilliant idea – thanks! Finally, you know you love the fashion police… I thought Weiss and Coco could do some bonding and punish the grumpy asshat at the same time – everyone wins! Finally, I don't want to level any expectations on you or anything (so no pressure), but I will say your reviews are always a joy for me to read. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the feedback you give me helps. _A lot_. So thank you, truly!

As for the why-did-they-talk-openly question? I have one thing and one thing only to say to you: _good catch._

**Enerjack: **That was by far my favorite part too! Neo now has it out for Enten and, let me say, the possibilities for plot twists in the future are – nearly – endless… Thanks for your review!

**CrimsonHeresy: **Jaune strikes me as a dreamer, sort of like Ruby. Given his crush on Weiss and the fact that they were looking for Schnee crates… well, let's just say love is blind/stupid/has a death wish and leave it at that. Thanks for your review!

**DoomLich:** Intention over practicality is spot on for Ruby, I agree. As long as it's the morally good action… she's going to do it. Of course, the path of hell is paved with good intentions! I don't have any problems with Jaune personally, but as a character he has _a lot _of flaws, that's definitely true. And now Enten's decided to go and make it worse for him… but Remnant takes no prisoners. I'm excited to see how people react to this subplot! Enten's romantic interests are a point of contention for me: on the one hand I can definitely see him going after any of the characters he knows but on the other… they're all very much immature kids. He knows that, in the long run, pursuing anything romantic would _likely _be disastrous. So, given he has to work with them day in and day out, that rules out RWEBY. Coco's certainly seems interested though…we'll have to see how that plays out!

**EVA-Saiyajin:** Some of that pushover-ness may just be him making compromises for his friends, but I can see how that might seem like he's being flakey, given his earlier 'lone wolf' outlook on life. Hopefully this chapter clears that up… he's not so much a lone wolf any more, he sees it as RWEBY vs. the world, now.

**AlekTas: **Nothing better than waking up to a review like that. Thanks for your kind words!

And now for my least favorite part of the chapter, asking for reviews. I hate doing it but I've found that more people leave 'em when I put a little message in at the end asking for feedback. Makes me feel like a tool, but if it works, it works and I'm not above asking for some virtual pick-me-ups!

Get to it minions! Drop me a note!

And of course, thanks for reading!

-Phailen


	16. Chapter 16

_1 week later – Week 10_

The library was quiet at this hour on Tuesday. It was early in the afternoon so everyone but the fourth years were currently stuck in class, alternatively listening or suffering through lessons, depending on the professor. Given that, the librarian was right to pointedly ask why both Adel and I were herebut luckily Hvid Gamle had come prepared.

"They're with me," HRCN's leader intoned. "I've got written permission here, for Enten Melkweg and Coco Adel."

The librarian, a middle aged man with a salt and pepper beard and dark hair that he kept shaven short, close to his skull, hummed as he read the proffered slips of paper. He examined each and then handed them both back to Gamle with a short nod of approval.

"Very well," he said and with that said, he went back to the house of cards he was assembling with meticulous care. It was his favorite hobby, one I saw him often practicing when I visited the library.

"Alright," Gamle said, leading Adel and I away from the man. He nodded to himself and claimed a table near the back of the room; it was a good location, one near the section that held studies done on Aura. The books there were rarely touched, not because they were useless but because they were so incredibly hard to understand.

Aura was largely a mysterious, almost other-worldly force to the general populace of Remnant. The extent of any given person's knowledge was likely that Aura could be used to enhance the body and defend it from attacks. Even among huntresses and hunters, that was often the most any of them knew. Of course, they knew more about the practical applications of the energy but on the theoretical side they were just as ignorant as the majority of Vale.

I wasn't alright with that.

Ever since I found out I could channel my Aura through metal that usually would not accept it, I started looking into the energy and the people who studied it. What I found was discouraging, for there was very little known and a disproportionately large amount of speculation; the only thing that the researchers appeared to agree upon was that eventually, someone would come along to prove wrong their theories on how Aura functioned.

I was a perfect example. Until my Aura, Remnant knew exactly what metals could and could not accept the energy. It was for that reason exactly that I asked the girls to keep quiet about my unforeseen skill. I did not want to attract the attention of the world because I just so happened to have a messed up Aura – that would invite questions that I _did not _want to answer.

Why do you have such fine control over it? When did you unlock its potential? Why were you so young? Do you remember killing the Grimm? Has its abilities evolved since you first discovered it?

No, better to keep it a secret. There was probably someone out there that knew enough about Aura to know that I shouldn't have been able to unlock it when I was four, deadly situation or not. A four year old did not have the experience, maturity or the attention span to sit still and investigate a presence in his head. To carefully poke and prod until he understood what it was and how it reacted to him. No four year old could know that there was a dormant powerin his head, just waiting to be unlocked, much less that the power was, in fact, Aura.

"So, you guys saw him duel, yeah?"

Gamle's voice. It brought me back to the waking world and the library in which I was sitting. The room was empty of students but for the three of us and the soothing earthen tones of the walls and floor seemed more relaxing because of it.

A good thing, too, because HRCN's leader wanted to dissect a classmate's fighting style and I did my best thinking in quiet, undisturbed places. Usually I was alone, though Blake would join me with one of her books from time to time, but having people to bounce ideas off of was a boon in its own right.

I returned my focus to HRCN's leader only to be brought up short up a fading bruise on his cheek. How did I miss a shiner like that? "Are you alright," I asked slowly, indicating the mark.

The boy furrowed his brow and reached up to his cheek, wincing when his fingers found the purpled flesh. He deflated. "Yeah, it's nothing… just a disagreement with Rod."

"Sorry," I said, frowning. "If I'd have known he would react like that when I asked him to fight-"

Gamle shook his head and cut across me. "It wasn't about that," he verbalized, his eyes darting to Adel for a split second. I noticed the girl frown out of the corner of my eye and I knew then that she caught the unconscious gesture too.

"My apologies," she said. "I know my team has caused some… _drama_ to erupt within the hierarchy. I wish I could-"

The fourth year shook his head again. "You don't have to do anything – it's not your fault," he said, a sigh escaping him. "The blame lies solely with Uhrglas, unfortunately. I hoped he would learn his lesson and start putting forth an effort once I cut ties with his team but…"

"It's driven him further away," I noted.

"It has," Gamle nodded. "Now I find it difficult to even interact with him, never mind taking his team on missions. Three of them are nothing but liabilities, now. I feel bad for Sjev but… until her teammates start trying again, I'll not pay UHNS any attention. I don't have time to coach them on their laziness, not with Rod and his conflict with the faunus. Citrin too. Uhrglas managed split my team down the middle with his decision to bring CFVY into the hierarchy and I've not quite forgiven him for it yet.

"Again," the boy continued when Adel made to speak, "it's not your fault. Uhrglas decided to wait until the last second to claim a team and in doing so sparked conflict within my hierarchy. Who knows – if he offered a mentorship to another team, earlier, then maybe that team's hierarchy would have picked up CFVY instead. You're a strong team and he denied you a chance at a better fit." He sighed. "He _knew _that Rod and Citrin had issues with the faunus and conflicts with the White Fang in their past…"

Gamle grunted and, with a resolute nod, spoke: "But enough about our hierarchy – I don't feel comfortable speaking about this in a public setting anyway. Tytanu Krwi – you two saw him fight."

Adel and I shared a glance amidst the pause brought on by the clumsy transition to a new topic. "Yeah," she said for us both. "He's quite a fighter."

He was formidable, that was certain. Gamle, somehow, procured Goodwitch's blessing to remove Adel and I from class for the _entire _day. The reason being: he wanted us in the fourth year's dueling class so that we could observe Tytanu Krwi, the leader of TNDR and HRCN's top competition for the number one spot, fight.

On a side note, Yang was _completely _jealous. I pulled out my Scroll and quickly utilized QuikPik to send her a picture of the library. Salt in the wound and all that; she'd get me back for it later, I was sure.

"Indeed," Gamle said sullenly, catching himself before he supported his head with his hand – it would have irritated the bruise. "I worry that he might threaten HRCN's position if left unchecked. I need a way around his abilities. His Semblance? I don't know what it is, just that _no one _has been able to physically harm him in the four years we've been here. He's completely undefeated because of it."

The edge of my lips quirked up into a half smile. Tytanu Krwi was dangerous to Gamle and HRCN in the same way Jaune Arc was dangerous to RWEBY, only in this case, the situation was reversed. I was working to keep Jaune weak and under Cardin's thumb – I still needed to find a subtle way to let slip to CRDL that The Council of Three can expel students based upon a faulty resume – where Hvid Gamle was working to overcome Krwi's already existing strength and bring him down.

"Enten," Gamle asked pointedly. "Any thoughts?"

I hummed in thought, switching from my – and the whole of RWEBY's, though unknowing – issues with Jaune to Gamle's problems with his fellow leader.

"TNDR's leader," I muttered, leaning forward on my elbows and thinking back on the duel I saw. "There was a reason I asked Seglare to fight him. I wanted to see how an Aura based ability that wasn't predisposed to inflicting harm interacted with his skin."

"He was immune," Adel said. "No matter how many times Rod hit him, he never slowed down."

Gamle scoffed. "I could have told you that. He's ignored anything from Rod's Semblance to ice growing on his skin."

"Wait a second," I said, holding up a hand. "We know Seglare's Semblance affects Aura, right? We now know that his Semblance doesn't affect Krwi. It follows then-"

"His Semblance isn't Aura based," Coco exclaimed. Were we not so far into the empty library, I was certain the librarian would be staring her down for the outburst.

Gamle's eyes narrowed and I continued: "Right. Seglare cannot affect Kwri because that thing he does with his skin is not based upon his Aura. It follows then that it must be based upon something else entirely."

I let that thought linger in the air for a few seconds before I continued. "You said he's resisted ice growing on his skin – how did he resist it? What did the ice do?"

"It just," Gamle started slowly, closing his eyes in thought. "It… fell off. I remember thinking all the ice on the dueling floor was going to be a pain to deal with because it formed on him but then it just slid off his arms and legs."

That complicated things. My earlier theory – that Kwri could expel his Aura in short, controlled bursts from anywhere on his body – was suddenly disproved. If the ice formed around his arms then it followed that it needed to be _on _something to form. That something wasn't his arms, clearly, elsewise it would have stuck.

That something also needed to be capable of blocking Seglare's blows – a force field of some kind? It couldn't be Aura though… otherwise HRCN's R would have been able to slow the boy down. Besides, Aura already acted as a de facto force field, albeit one with very little clearance between itself and the body. Still, the fact remained that every hunter and every huntress possessed a 'force field' of Aura – that was how we were able to ignore minor injuries, our Aura field was thick enough to block-

"His Aura. He changed it somehow – that might be his Semblance!"

I glanced at my tablemates to find both of them staring at me expectantly.

"Feel free to expand for us simple folk," Adel demurred, sardonic.

I scoffed, for Adel was anything but simple, and continued. "We all have a field of Aura around ourselves, right? Thick enough to block minor blows and injuries – nothing on the level of Seglare's axes or a sheet of ice growing on our limbs, though. Therefore, I think Kwri's Semblance gives him the ability to change that Aura field. Make it able to block things it shouldn't."

"Rod's attacks affect Aura, though," Gamle frowned. "If that were true then he'd still be able to slow him down."

"Ice would still stick to him too," I added. "I didn't mean he made his Aura thicker – I meant he _changed _it."

"Like, into metal," Adel hummed thoughtfully. "I suppose it's not a stretch when we have students here that can change their own Aura into ice."

"That would also explain his skin color changing in the middle of the fight. It's not actually his _skin _changing color – it's his Aura, _over _his skin."

Gamle sat back in seat, clearly lost in thought. "Remarkable," the boy muttered. "That's a solid theory – and you figured all of that out after just watching him fight _once_."

I stayed silent – I knew I was good at observing people. It was what I did for the first few years of my life almost exclusively, as a means to limit my progress to that of levels similar to those of my peers. Now, I still observed my peers but my goal was instead to dissect them and their abilities. Their weaknesses. Their strengths. Their motives and their personalities.

Information was always valuable, but in the right hands – _my _hands – it could be downright deadly.

"I knew I chose right with RWEBY," Adel smiled in my direction. "And what are you, now, one win away from taking the top spot in class? Even after almost all of you faced that 'invincible girl' and each other… I look forward to seeing just how much of an extra boost you give CFVY."

"Indeed," Gamle said, throwing a glance at Adel. I thought I saw her smile widen and I knew then that she was only trying to draw attention to the fact that she was the one who brought RWEBY into the hierarchy – to further raise Gamle's opinion of her, most like. I expected that when I convinced Gamle to invite her along with us though, that was actually the exact reason I wanted her here – if she got a chance to impress HRCN's leader further then that would translate into good will toward RWEBY.

"So, we have a working theory on his Semblance," the boy continued. "I'm finding it hard to get around Aura that can potentially change into metal, though… what are your thoughts on potential strategies?"

I smiled softly. "There's always a way. Depending on how long you want to spend on this, I'm sure we can find a few good ones by the time class ends for the day. Ever seen what a large enough magnet does to metal, for example?"

* * *

_1 week later – Week 11_

I was blindsided by a crushing blow as I walked through Beacon's halls late in the evening. It threw me into the air and carried me through an open classroom door, where I landed in a heap on the unforgiving wooden floor. I heard my Scroll, which was knocked out of my hands when I was hit, clutter to the ground some distance away.

A grunt escaped me and I quickly forced myself to sit up. My first observation came to me quickly. I was in one of Beacon's large lecture halls, one of the classrooms that boasted multiple levels of seating with the professor's area located in the center of the room, at the bottom. This was Professor Port's class, actually. My second observation…

"Well, well, well," Cardin Winchester said as he walked through the classroom door and shut it behind him. Before the hallway was completely sealed off I managed to spot one of the statues across the way; it was slightly out of position, a detail that easily escaped my mind seconds before, given I was focused on my Scroll as I walked.

"A little birdie told me you don't have a weapon," he said, grinning. Then, looking over my shoulder: "Don't just stand there – get him!"

I became aware of three people behind me only as they lunged at me and by then it was far too late. A pair of hands grabbed at my right arm and I managed to elbow someone with my left before it too was restrained.

A masculine grunt escaped the one I managed to hit and I heard someone stumble backward.

Winchester scoffed. "Get it together, Sky." He then turned to me, or rather, my captors. "Make sure he doesn't use his Semblance. Keep his hands away from us. Got it?"

The two remaining members of CRDL – Russel Thrush and Dove Bronzewing – both grunted and I winced when the one on my right twisted my arm in a particularly painful way.

"Not so tough now, huh. Without those stupid girls, you're _nothing_," CRDL's leader continued, grabbing my chin and forcing me to look him in the eye. "Now… me and the boys think you and those four moronsare cheating, see? No way anyone can be that good without getting their hands dirty."

I realized belatedly then that I may have misjudged Cardin Winchester. I thought him a typical schoolyard bully, the kind that would knock books out of hands or take food from his peers – ultimately just a pest. This boy in front of me though… he wasn't a schoolyard bully. It took a certain kind of mind to plan out an attack on a fellow classmate. A certain kind of cold neutrality or – depending on the objective of the attack – a deep seeded hatred.

Hindsight was twenty-twenty.

Indeed, I probably should have seen this ambush coming. Winchester loathed both Pyrrha Nikos and I; we both humiliated him. With his usual punching bag – Jaune Arc – gone, the bully would obviously then try to find another target. Given Pyrrha Nikos was largely considered the strongest fighter of her age group and a small altercation that resulted in a broken nose, Winchester's decision to target me was something of an unforeseen inevitability.

"So since you're already cheating, you're gonna help CRDL… bend the rules," the boy continued. "To level the playing field, see? Here's what's gonna happen: you're gonna fight Dove. You're gonna fight Russel. You're gonna fight Sky. And you know what? You're gonna lose _every time._"

A surprised sound escaped me, almost a grunt but more a laugh. Maybe this wasn't just the bully's attempt to find a new target, considering I beat him in our last dueling class. Again, I underestimated him.

He wanted his team to move up in the rankings and – likely because I both broke his nose and beat him in the last dueling class – he held just enough animosity for me to single me out as his first stepping stone.

Winchester punched me across the face, rudely pulling me back to the 'conversation' at hand.

"You think this is funny?! We'll see if you're laughing when your precious little sister gets taken-"

He didn't get any further, for I threw both of my feet at his gut and laced the blow with enough Aura to toss him bodily across the room. He landed in a heap against the back wall of the classroom even as I and my captors stumbled backward. A desk behind us arrested our momentum and I wasted no time in blasting the ground with even more Aura, completely throwing one of the two boys away, deeper into the lecture hall, and staggering the other one. I turned immediately to the latter – Bronzewing – and decked him across the chin before he could recover.

Sky Lark blindsided me as I was readying another blow. The boy tackled me and I fell back on my instincts, minimizing the damage of the fall by rolling with the blow. He ended up straddling my stomach and promptly cocked his fist back. I recovered faster than him, though, and proceeded to punch him in the gut while he was busy getting set. He hunched over, allowing me to manipulate his arm into an awkward, painful hold and use it as leverage to throw him off of me.

I wasted absolutely no time in bull rushing Winchester once I regained my feet. He lashed out at me when I reached his position near the back wall but given his stance and the movements of his arm, it was clear to me he lacked the hand-to-hand skills that Yang and I honed over the past three years. The blonde was a good bit better than I was, given her fighting style completely revolved around her fists, but I was more than capable of handling CRDL's leader.

The boy's blow was redirected by my forearm and I threw a quick jab at his chin with the opposite arm. His head rocked backward and his back hit the classroom wall, I promptly threw my other fist forward-

Russel Thrush body checked me into the wall beside his leader and my head cracked against the unyielding stone. I grit my teeth even as the boy tried to land a blow on my face and pushed him away from me, just in time for Winchester's fist to land a punishing blow across my chin.

I stumbled away from the boy to give myself some space and wound up right in front of Bronzewing. He and his leader were the last ones I wanted to face right now so I forewent using my Semblance to stagger him – something he proved he could avoid during the three on one duel – and instead lowered my shoulder in a charge. I saw his eyes open minutely in surprise as he tried to move out of the way but I was too close and the space at the top of lecture hall was too confined.

He grunted when I hit him and again when I proceeded to carry him across the back of classroom and throw him into a bookcase. I immediately grabbed his shoulder while he was dazed and dragged him away from the object, allowing me to put my back to it and keep all of CRDL in my sights.

Two quick jabs were sent at Bronzewing, one of which landed, before I was forced to throw him away from me and into Winchester's path. CRDL's leader was charging me but instead of stopping, he brutally shouldered his teammate out of the way before continuing toward me.

My eyes widened and I utilized my Semblance to launch myself away from the boy and toward Sky Lark. The boy was back on his feet now, near the professor's desk at the bottom of the room, and nursing a bruised nose. He put his fists up when I landed next to him and lashed out at me with his left. It was an instinctive reflex that allowed me to avoid the telegraphed blow and I threw a jab at his chin, staggering him. My follow-up uppercut was free then to forcefully launch the boy across the room and I turned back to the rest of his team before his body even hit the ground.

The three of them stopped as soon as they saw I was aware of them again, some ten to fifteen feet away from me, at the edge of the bottom level.

Winchester growled, his face a rictus of frustration and anger. "Forget throwing the matches. You're _dead_ Melkweg. Dead!"

I laughed quietly just as my eye was attracted by a glint of silver on the second floor landing, between the desks. My Scoll… I'd forgotten about it in the hectic melee I'd made of this ambush.

Unfortunately, my would-be captors saw it too. "The Scroll," Winchester spat, following my eyes. "I never see you anywhere without that thing. Get it!"

But I was already moving. I threw myself upward with my Semblance, landed on the first floor desks and vaulted over the second just as Bronzewing dove for my Scroll.

So, instead of landing on the floor, I landed on him.

My foot impacted the back of the boy's head and I promptly used that same appendage to kick him in the side when he tried to curl up defensively. He grunted and the breath in his lungs was forced from his body in a wheeze.

I picked up my Scroll unbothered.

"You know," I said, rolling Bronzewing over with my foot and offering the boy a hand up. "You don't think things through enough, Winchester."

I could use this situation to my advantage. Having my Scroll back in my hands served as a calming influence, it made me stop and think about what I was doing before I did it… It returned to me some amount of control in this situation. The clarity of mind was received gratefully, especially given this was my first chance to stop and think since I got blindsided.

CRDL made two very large mistakes in this ambush. One: they did not bring their weapons. Two: they picked a classroom where mobility was essential in a fight.

The first mistake was understandable. Walking around Beacon with your weapons was generally only done on a dueling day; CRDL would have stood out if all of them retrieved their weapons for this… venture. That would have made it harder to keep their intentions secret. They also probably weren't aware that I trained in hand-to-hand combat for three years before Beacon. They likely expected me to fight like some untrained street brawler without my shield.

But the second? They knew my Semblance afforded me great mobility even while lugging a heavy shield around. Without one I was able to move about a battlefield with almost as much grace and freedom as Blake. That Winchester and his gang overlooked that was laughable.

"For example," I continued, placing my Scroll inside one of my pockets. "Why jump me in a lecture hall, where I can toss you fools down _three _floors instead of just across the room?"

Bronzewing lurched upward suddenly and grabbed my hand, attempting to pull me down to the floor. I was ready for that – what else could he do from the ground? By offering him my hand I only encouraged him to utilize an obvious, and therefore predictable, route of attack.

I allowed myself to be pulled down and used the extra momentum to further strengthen my punch with the opposite fist. The blow landed across his chin and his head was forcefully whipped to the side, impacting the unyielding wooden floor with a painful-sounding _thud_.

Hands grabbed my shoulders then and Cardin hauled me to my feet just in time for Thrush to land a punch on my nose. The boy got another hit in before I was able to plant both of my feet in his gut and blast him across the room with my Aura, just as I had his leader. The difference between the two boys lay in their Auras, Winchester had _a lot _more than Thrush and it showed in the way the boy crumpled to the ground, unmoving when he landed.

CRDL's leader and I stumbled backward and I promptly buffeted the ground with my Aura, nearly staggering myself with the loss of it, to unbalance him. I jumped away from him as soon as his grip slackened.

"Now," I said, collecting myself on the third floor landing and eying the bully as he straightened below me. _Beneath _me. I gestured to the lecture hall at large. "I _could _kick your ass for this… but first, I'd like to know how you found out about my family."

He scoffed. "Like I'd tell _you_."

"Fine," I said, taking care to make sure I was between him and the hallway door. My eyes were watering slightly, Thrush's blows must have hit harder than I thought. "What's changed for CRDL in the past few weeks… Why would Enten Melkweg and his family become so interesting to them…"

Because CRDL developing an interest in _me _was acceptable… even expected, given RWEBY was now first in the year's rankings. But my _family_?

_I would have answers._

It was unlikely the group of four boys spontaneously decided to start studying harder and learned about Phoebe that way. I was careful to keep the details of my personal life just that: personal. My information that was publically available to other Beacon students was carefully parsed clean of anything that indicated I even had a sibling or a mother.

A more likely explanation was my leader: Ruby.

The girl loved to speak about my little sister and she did it often. The thought of her very first fan _still _excited her to this day, several weeks after she met Phoebe. It was entirely possible – almost likely – that CRDL just happened to overhear the younger girl speaking of my sister. It followed then that Cardin Winchester _probably _only knew I had a little sister, nothing more.

Still, I needed to be sure. I needed to be certain that CRDL had no other reason to research my family. To that end, the only thing that I could think of, the only thing that changed recently and could spur the four boys into reading about me, was ONGE.

"You joined a hierarchy recently," I started. "Congratulations. Second ranked team in their year, ONGE was a steal for CRDL, all things considered. One might wonder how the-then fifth place team scored such a big name… And while the topic is being discussed: congratulations on moving up too. A tie for fourth place now – you must be proud."

The boy remained silent, only glowering at me as his teammates slowly began to regain themselves. I didn't think they'd be able to fight any time soon but to just have a numeric advantage was more than I wanted to allow Winchester right now. I needed to hurry. I needed to accomplish something here – in addition to figuring out _why _CRDL knew of my family.

Because it just occurred to me that I'd been given the perfect opportunity to let The Council of Three information slip.

"Funny thing about ONGE, though," I continued. "They're behind _our _hierarchy team – CFVY. Heard of them? Might be that they want to take the number one spot for themselves, yeah?"

The boy growled low in his throat and I had a feeling that I hit the mark with my last comment. That was bad. ONGE had plenty of reasons to want the top spot. If they ordered CRDL to start harassing RWEBY and this dunderhead just so happened to stumble upon knowledge of my family? Of _my little sister?_

CRDL might just find themselves nursing more serious – accidental, of course – injuries when they faced RWEBY in class. A threat to my family was just as important to me as a threat to my team, and CRDL was both-

'_I __**don't **__know that,' _I exhaled, frustrated. I didn't know if CRDL was truly set upon RWEBY by ONGE. It very well could be that Winchester happened to overhear Ruby talking about Phoebe and decided to bring it up here to see if he could get a rise out of me.

'_Well, he certainly accomplished __**that**__,"_ I thought as I glanced at his teammates, all of them still groaning at various locations in the classroom.

That seemed more likely for the bully… that he just happened to learn about Phoebe and decided to try and use it against me. Now that I thought about it, it really didn't make much sense for ONGE to sic CRDL after RWEBY anyway… especially not if they wanted to displace CFVY as the number one team.

"So they asked you sabotage RWEBY? No… no, that's too simple," I verbalized. "Too little reward for too much effort. The second year teams only get one-tenth of our scores, after all, knocking RWEBY down in the first year rankings would only marginally knock CFVY down. ONGE wouldn't waste time on us."

I blinked rapidly to clear my eyes of moisture. I could feel my bruises starting to swell. "If not for practical reasons, then this must have been a personal call," I laughed quietly, carefully watching the boy's face. His eyes narrowed and his scowl deepened dramatically; I bit back a relieved grin. My family was safe. "Winchester! I didn't know you cared! But if you must know – the girls and I are fine. We're actually thinking about redecorating the clubhouse right now-"

"Screw you," the boy spat, growling low in his throat. "You and that _bitch _Nikos think you're so amazing. You walk around like you own this school and everyone just goes along with it because they think you're perfect!" He sneered and jabbed his finger toward me. "But you aren't! You don't get that strong without secrets; you don't get that strong without screwing over someone else!"

And there it was. CRDL's motive. Their reason for this ambush. It sounded like Cardin Winchester was jealous or angry – probably both – over the fact that RWEBY and JNPR were clearly stronger than his team. He was actively trying to do something about it, to better his team's standing, just like myself. I could respect that. It spoke volumes of his willpower.

What I couldn't respect was his method. It was far too… _direct. _But then, that was just the difference between myself and Cardin Winchester, wasn't it? I planned on going about _my _sabotage in a much more indirect fashion.

Still, there was a mutually beneficial agreement to be had here. I just needed to give him a little push in the right direction.

"JNPR? Jaune Arc is dead weight on that team. With him they'll never-"

"Shows what you know," the boy spat derisively, an arrogant grin on his face now. "He grew a spine a couple weeks back. Actually had the balls to stand up to me! _Me! _He doesn't even deserve to be here!" The boy growled, low in his throat. "He faked his application. He shouldn't even _be _here. And the headmaster won't do _shit _about it!

"Everyone has secrets. Everyone cheats," Winchester finished. "Including you and that team of whores!"

"I'll be sure to pass along your well wishes," I quipped. The boy's angry demeanor contrasted heavily with his arrogant attitude at the start of this little ambush. He didn't like losing control and it showed. "And I'd suggest you stop spreading lies about Jaune-"

"I'm not-"

"Because," I said firmly, overriding the boy's protests, "if he did get in on faked transcripts then The Council of Three would have removed him by now. They take the lives of Vale's citizens seriously and I hardly think they'd have missed something so obvious."

Winchester's eyes narrowed. "Huh," he said after a noticeable pause, the grin still on his face. "Maybe I heard wrong then. Jauney-boy _is _doing better now, might be that I just got him mixed up with someone else. He just beat Russel, you know? Couldn't do _that_ with faked transcripts."

I nodded, noting the change in the boy's tone. Where before he was angry and defiant, now he was cocky and self-assured.

'_Hook, line and sinker.'_

My work was done.

"And he'll continue to improve," I said, starting toward the classroom door. "Pyrrha Nikos is training him, after all. If the so-called 'invincible girl' can't whip him into shape then I'm not sure who can. The crush she has on him will only make her more determined, too."

I reached the door then but hesitated before I opened it. I glanced back at CRDL's leader, in the stairway between the desks. "Don't do this again, Winchester. If I hear of you even so much as _touching _one hair on the girls' heads…"

"Tch, whatever," the boy scoffed, looking away. "I don't give a _shit _about your sluts."

'_Of course not. Now that you have something to hold over Jaune's head, you're absolutely fine focusing on easier prey.'_

JNPR would return to being internally torn apart and RWEBY would be free to solidify its lead. The thought made me uneasy but, at the same time, satisfied. I took no enjoyment from doing this, from instigating and exacerbating Jaune Arc's troubles, but it was necessary if my team was to stay in first place. The boy brought it on himself in the first place anyway, with his faked application. I knew it was wrong, I knew it was underhanded and I knew JNPR deserved a chance… But then, hadn't they already gotten one? They were in first place for nearly three months and did next to nothing with it. Now, it was RWEBY's turn. We were in first and we were there to stay.

Because staying in first place was very much a necessity… Having first pick at the new missions meant being able to choose one that suited _our_ needs, that suited _our_ combat skills; it meant being able to stack the desk in our favor while we grew more experienced on missions and stronger because of that knowledge. Less risk of going into an unfavorable situation because we were left with the missions that none of the other teams wanted. RWEBY would _not _be put in that position, not while I had anything to say about it. I wanted us to be prepared wholly and completely for whatever Remnant threw at us.

No deaths on team RWEBY. No debilitating injuries. We would survive. _All _of us.

Our deck would _always _be stacked.

Another boon: reputation. The first placed team in each year at Beacon inevitably drew more publicity from Vale as a whole – no one wanted to hear about the runner up, much less whatever shmuck ended up in third. First place was the only place that mattered. And the reputation that came with that position was powerful in the right hands. I watched JNPR squander it for two months while Jaune Arc bumbled through interview after interview – the reporters that came to Beacon eventually stopped writing about JNPR as a whole and started covering the Arc boy's personal life and all the drama that came with it.

The spotlights shifted from up and coming students to the infighting that plagued JNPR.

_Despicable_.

My hope was that with Weiss Schnee on our team, RWEBY would be able to leverage that reputation as the strongest first year team at Beacon better than JNPR. We already had a unique quality in that we were a team of five, something to attract the eye of Vale's citizens, we just needed someone to then keep them reading.

We would be a powerhouse.

No, RWEBY could not lose first place, not if we wanted to be in the best position possible to survive our time at Beacon. Every little detail mattered when you were in a life-or-death fight against the Grimm – maybe that girl from MRCY would have survived, if only her team gained a senior hierarchy team and a subordinate one as well.

I'd be damned before I let a member of RWEBY be carried back into Beacon, bloodied and with a dirty sheet draped over their cold, unmoving head.

So, JNPR would fall and RWEBY would rise and my leader would most certainly not find out about any of this. Neither would her sister, for that matter. The fallout would be… troublesome to deal with. Both because I truly felt this was necessary enough that I would _not _stop and because Ruby and Yang would most _definitely _disapprove.

Maybe I could recruit Weiss to help me out – I thought she would be at least receptive to the idea of working in the background to keep the other first year teams solidly _behind _RWEBY. It was an active job to stay at the top, unfortunately, because you became a target when you were number one. Being second or third was more of a passive role… I only needed to wait for Jaune to drag his team down far enough for RWEBY to pass them up.

Now I'd have to start playing defense… and I'd probably need help with it.

Something to consider for the future, then. Potentially involving Weiss was dependent upon how much the renewed bullying from Cardin Winchester affected JNPR. If Jaune only started to lag behind again… then I might need help to keep Pyrrha, Nora and Ren from picking up the slack. But if Jaune's _second _downward spiral started overtly affecting his teammates' performance as well?

Something to consider in the future. For now, I'd wait and see.

JYDE too, in third place, was a team to watch. They were more than three wins behind us; but they also just had an off week. If they grew to be a threat… well, perhaps it would be good to start looking into the members of that team too.

I shut the door quietly behind me, already manipulating my Scroll into showing me the notes I kept on my classmates.

* * *

_1 week later – Week 12_

"That was _so_ boring," Ruby bemoaned, scuffing one of her boots on the ground as we walked through Beacon's Emerald Forest. She started spinning in circles, her hands thrown into the air. "Like, soooo epically, fantastically, superficiallydisappointing!"

A bemused smile stretched across my face and I decided not to mention the girl's odd choice in adverbs – I was pretty sure she was just yelling whatever word popped into her head anyway.

It was a nice day outside… _really _nice. The sun was full over our heads and the sky was cloudless. There was a light breeze about the air and it, combined with the mild weather, made for a perfect day to be outside. The large trees all around us provided just the right amount of shade and the proximity to Beacon meant the Grimm were not a threat.

A diamond in the rough as far as weather was concerned – Vale would get cold soon.

"Seriously," Ruby continued, her arms waving spastically, when I remained silent. "What did they think they needed? A battalion? There were three of them!"

"Not every mission was meant to be action-packed," I answered, adjusting the unpainted shield on my right arm. It couldn't collapse into a bracer yet which made it a giant pain in my ass to store… it had been living with team RWEBY in our clubhouse recently and that was driving Weiss up a wall.

My leader groaned. "Couldn't there have been more than _three _dinky little boarbatusks?"

_Blood-flecked armor. Spinning…_

"Boarbatusks are Grimm," I reminded the girl. "All Grimm are deadly."

"Yeah," Ruby allowed. "All Grimm are deadly but those three were smaller than the one Weiss faced in class! Plus: there were _two _teams there to deal with them!"

I sighed, used to the girl's complaints by now. It was the only thing she did since we got back yesterday from our joint mission with CFVY and Adel found the entire situation hilarious, probably because she didn't have to deal with the overly-enthusiastic girl who just realized that not every mission involved glory and heroism.

Ruby was doing an annoyingly admirable job at holding on to that idea.

"CFVY took that mission to break us in," I pointed out. "Did you really think our _first _mission as a team was going to be so deadly?"

In all honesty, the girl had a point. It _was_ a pretty mundane mission. Almost too mundane, given I didn't get to fight. It involved a trading ship docked in Vale's port. They had a little problem with a few Grimm they picked up in Mistral before they left for Vale and subsequently managed to trap in one of their cargo holds. I was pretty certain the crew purposefully talked up the number of beasts too. Probably thought it would help get them dealt with quicker so that they could continue on their way faster.

"You did well, by the way," I said, nodding in her direction.

"You think so," Ruby asked, bright eyed and excited all of the sudden. She turned to me as we walked farther into Beacon's forest. "I realized that I didn't need to rush onto the ship since they said the Boarbatusks were trapped in there with them since Mistral! I _almost _did because – _wow _– if they survived that long of a trip with three Grimm running around then they needed saving, like, _right away! _But none of them looked worried and then they said they trapped them so I was like 'Alright, Ruby! Score one for logic!' and then Weiss was all proud and stuff. She thought she was hiding her face but I saw it. She's not as good as she thinks…"

I laughed. "She's pretty good at hiding her thoughts."

"Not when Ruby's on the job," the girl exclaimed. "I knew the _second _she made that 'hmph' sound that it was one of her 'way to go Ruby!' hmphs."

I hummed in agreement, not because I noticed Weiss' tell, but because Ruby really was making progress on thinking before she acted. I thought she would run off the second the sailors mentioned three Grimm aboard their ship but I was very pleasantly surprised when she only started bouncing from one leg to the other. It paid off, too, RWEBY and CFVY dealt with the Grimm swiftly, efficiently and professionally and had the ship on its way filled with a content crew in less than fifteen minutes.

They probably weren't going to be content when they received the fine for falsifying mission information, but at least they got on their way quickly.

"You deserve the praise," I said. "I'm impressed with you, Ruby."

She blushed but quickly gathered her wits and stuck her nose up in the air. "Yes, well, Ruby the Huntress – yes that was a _capital_ 'H' – is a _very _impressive girl. I heard once that she gained her very first follower at the ripe young age of fifteen!"

I laughed along with her, hugging her to my side briefly. The girl's happy demeanor and bright enthusiasm was a breath of fresh air considering the subterfuge I was facilitating regarding JNPR. "You know, I heard the exact same thing."

"Everything's looking up," Ruby cheered then, spinning in circles next to me. "We're _first _in the rankings!I'm thinking better. RWEBY's first! We're gonna test out a _really_ big gun! And RWEBY's _first!_" She sighed. "Yup, everything's good."

"We have been doing well," I agreed as we reached our destination. It was a clearing in Beacon's Emerald Forest, only a short distance from the school. "This past week's sweep helped."

"We're in first," she cheered again. "4.8 out of a possible 7… we're awesome!"

"JNPR is close behind us, they'll be tough competition especially since Jaune started fighting competently."

Ruby grunted. "_Maybe_… What do they have? 4.5?"

"4.5, yeah. JYDE is in third with 4 even. They have Malamig to thank for not falling to fourth, considering how horrible last week went for them in singles dueling."

"The bow girl? She's good," my leader exclaimed. "And Jaune is doing better too! Did you know we talked about team combinations yesterday after class? He was kinda being weird – more than usual I mean – and I was kind of worried at first but he just said he slept badly. Maybe I should tell him what kind of pillow I have? I _love _my pillow. Oh! I wonder if we can go on a mission with JNPR? Maybe we can go with CFVY and JNPR _and…"_

A pause.

"CHRY," I reminded the girl. "They offered after the deal with ONGE mysteriously ended up with CRDL… Shame, that, ONGE is second in their year. CHRY is fourth."

"He's doing better! Cut him some slack – he's trying!"

I grunted in response, mostly because it was clear that Jaune Arc was, at least, trying now. He won his duel two weeks ago against Russel, a mediocre student, but that mediocre student still got into Beacon on his own merit. Jaune might not be able to hold a candle to the heavy-weights in first year yet, but progress was progress. And he'd definitely made some progress.

We had a teams and paired dueling class last week and later this week would be another singles dueling class. I wondered how Jaune would perform… If I heard Ruby correctly – because sometimes it was difficult picking apart her rants – then Jaune was acting a little edgy, a little odd during their last interaction. Did Winchester make use of the information I gave him?

I banished the thoughts from my mind. It was out of my hands now, better to focus on the here and now. Namely, the shield on my arm so I could stop fighting like a drunken brawler in dueling class. Yang was better at hand-to-hand than I was but I had just enough skill and my Semblance gave me just enough of an edge to make me a viable threat even without Aegis.

Still, it was a sloppy fighting style I possessed without a shield on my arm. A new weapon was priority number one.

"You ready to test out this cannon?"

Ruby's eyes widened and, just as I'd hoped, her attention flew from dueling class and Jaune to the shield on my arm.

"Let's do it," she cheered, immediately retreating to the tree line of the clearing, some twenty feet away. "Ready!"

I nodded and hefted up the unpainted weapon, urging its four-foot length to align the cannon's barrel with my right arm. It did so without any trouble – a good sign, considering this was very much a trial run – and locked into place with a loud _clank_.

Something to look at later. A noise that loud could just mean the shield was heavier – which it was – and therefore louder but it could also mean something was wrong.

Still, it appeared to have locked into its firing position correctly…

I reached down to my waist with my left hand and grabbed one of the shield's massive bullets from the four-slot bandolier Ruby and I threw together from thick leather straps. It sort of reminded me of an over-the-shoulder bag, given the way it stretched from my right shoulder down to the opposite side of my waist.

Mine was better than Adel's. More firepower.

My hand pulled the bullet – all fifty pounds, six inches of width and thirteen in length of it – free from its harness and brought it over to the shield. It was only then that I realized how awkward it was to load it when it was aligned with my arm… it was too large and the bullet too long to allow for that.

Frowning, I coaxed the shield into returning to its original position – the far corner aligned with my right fist so that, when I brought it across my torso, its top would run parallel to the ground – and breathed a sigh of relief when it obeyed.

"At least we know the rotating mechanism is functioning," I muttered as I gently slid the bullet into the shield. "Helps that there's no chain mechanism to complicate things." It was far, far too heavy and far too unwieldy to be fired now. This shield would be staying on my arm.

The bullet fell down to the bottom of the barrel with a slick sounding _schink _of metal but its momentum was arrested before it exited the shield. At the top of the barrel, a metal plate slid home, completely sealing the bullet inside the four-foot barrel.

I hefted the shield up with a little bit of difficulty… it was a little too heavy. Definitely too heavy to use the barrel in combat. That was just another defect to look at back in the workshop – this was a trial run for a reason.

"Three," I muttered, just loudly enough for Ruby to hear. The girl whined excitedly and I heard her rub her hands together from where she was standing behind me.

"Two." There was a grin on my face now and excitement started to bubble up within me. I felt powerful like this, aiming what amounted to an artillery gun at an unsuspecting group of trees across the clearing. I liked the feeling.

"One," I breathed, listening as the trigger mechanism clicked into place. The only thing left was to spark the explosion that would produce enough gas to hurl the bullet from my shield. The trigger button. Located on my pointer finger, where the old button that fired Aegis used to be.

I exhaled and then-

_**BOOM!**_

My world was immediately thrown into chaos and I was spinning through what I could only assume was the air, given the way the sky and the ground were trading off being above me. I registered pain in my right arm just as my momentum was arrested, _abruptly_ and _harshly_, and what air I had in my lungs was forcibly expelled from my body. My head rocked back and impacted whatever the object was behind me and I slid down to the ground in a heap.

"Uhhhh," I groaned. My head was pounding, my right shoulder was _on fire_, my back was twitching painfully, my ears were ringing and my sight took several seconds and even more blinking to focus. "_Shit."_

I slumped over against whatever was behind me and shut my eyes. Without my sight to focus on, the pain in my back and my shoulder only grew more intense, however, so I begrudgingly opened them again. "Fuck. Fuck, fuck fuck. Fuckity… _Fuck!_"

'_Alright… Okay… Let's make sure I still have an arm. Test the fingers first… One. Two… Three, there it is. Four and… five.'_

I released a breath in the form of a relieved sigh just as I registered Ruby in front of me. My eyes – which could _kind of _focus now – noted that she was wide eyed and very clearly worried.

"-okay? Enten?! Enten!"

"M'right," I muttered. "M'fine. Just… Ugh."

I pulled in a deep breath and blinked several times, forcing my mind out of its pain-induced withdrawal and back into alertness.

"Okay," I said, trying to sit up but giving it up as a bad job when my back protested _fiercely_. "Okay."

"Are you sure you're alright," Ruby asked quietly, hesitantly reaching out-

"_SHIT! Fuck!"_

She recoiled away from my shoulder _which she had just __**poked **_and-

"Don't," I breathed through clenched teeth. "Don't. Do. That. Again."

"Okay, okay," she said placatingly, waving her hands in from of her face.

"Okay," I parroted for what felt like the tenth time, trying to focus on Ruby's boots in front of me and only partially succeeding. "So… I have an arm still. My back is on fire- what am I leaning against?"

"A tree," she said. "Your back too? You flew, like, thirty feet… right into the tree."

"Thirty huh," I laughed gruffly. "Guess it's a good thing I wasn't rooted to the ground then. Without anywhere to go all that force probably would have torn my arm right off."

"So… the cannon," she asked hesitantly. "Are we still…?"

"I still want to make it work," I confirmed, forcing myself into a sitting position. My back protested but it was easier to ignore now… my shoulder was still incredibly delicate though. I would be feeling that for a few days, at least. "Just need a way to absorb the recoil better. Did it work, by the way? Did it fire?"

"Uhh, sorta," she responded, casting a look over at the area where I'd aimed. "It fired the shell but since a lot of the momentum was lost when you flew backward, it ended up being a dud. Not enough force behind it…"

I stayed silent in the wake of that observation. It was clear to me that I'd never be able to absorb the force from this cannon and keep my arm without some kind of assistance. A gauntlet that ran the full length of my arm, from my hand up to my shoulder, would be necessary.

"Hey," I said abruptly, inspiration hitting me. "Do you think it would be possible to build a… a _rail_ into the gauntlet? If we made it the length of my arm, that is."

"A rail? Like… that the shield was… oh! _Oooooh. _We put the shield on the rail and let it slide backward whenever it's fired! That's genius!"

It was, but it wasn't _my _idea. At least not technically. From what little I knew about artillery weapons from Earth, the fact that they absorbed some of the force by recoiling back was among that knowledge. A rail upon which the shield could travel up my arm after firing would hopefully serve to absorb enough of the recoil that I wouldn't be blown off my feet.

"But… we'd need to lock the gauntlet into a straight line when you fire," Ruby continued. "Your arm would have to be held perfectly straight – that'd be _really _awkward to aim because you won't be able to see where you're pointing unless you want your head taken off when the shield slides back after you fire."

I frowned. It was a valid point. If I wanted to have the shield slide back on its rail then I'd need to find a way to fire it without getting my head knocked off. Add to that the fact that if I ducked my head down – underneath the shield when it absorbed the bullet's recoil – I probably wouldn't be able to use the cannon with any kind of accuracy.

"Something to think about," I decided, delicately hoisting myself up off the ground. I fired the bullet nearly two minutes ago and the pounding in my head was gone. My vision returned in full and my back was only slightly sore now. My shoulder was still a mess of abused, purple flesh but… no pain, no gain.

Ruby frowned when I winced and then nodded. "Right. No more testing until we get the arm-length gauntlet built… I was really hoping it would all work on the first try…" She glanced forlornly between Crescent Rose and the still-unnamed shield on my arm.

I laughed. "If it works the first time you try it, there's something wrong with it."

Ruby only groaned and ran off toward the trees I targeted, presumably to retrieve the bullet. I used the opportunity to check on Ozpin's app.

It was a difficult piece of software to create. I added a map of Beacon underneath it last week but apparently I made a few mistakes. The image stayed in the exact same spot regardless of where I was located on campus – right now it indicated I was back in the clubhouse, where I'd been when I first applied it. Ruby's dot was in the correct spot relative to mine but getting the image to move _with_ me would definitely be the next step. Especially if I wanted to figure out where those 'unknowns' were entering and leaving campus – the dots that didn't fit into the categories of first year, second year, third year, fourth year or professor.

Ruby was heading back to me now so I pushed the thoughts from my mind and quickly checked on Yang, Blake and Weiss. It looked like Weiss was in the dining hall and – if I was judging my distances correctly – that put both Yang and Blake in the library. I nodded, satisfied that they weren't in any trouble because Winchester and his flunkies were currently surrounding a dot labeled 'Jaune Arc' rather than one of theirs, and returned my Scroll to my pocket.

"Blake told me about… you know," Ruby murmured once she returned, silently offering me the bullet.

"Did she," I asked, glancing at the younger girl as I slid the ammunition back in its holster. All four bullets were _heavy _but it was nothing I – and my Aura – couldn't deal with.

Ruby hummed, drawing my attention back to her, and looked at me with an expression on her face that I'd never seen before. It looked kind of like she was proud and happy at the same time.

The girl nodded. "She told me you knew too. That you said she should tell _me_?"

"I did," I confirmed. "I thought you would be- Ruby?"

She was hugging me now. It was a good hug though, no tears or sniffling and she was even mindful of my shoulder, so I returned the gesture, idly noting that the girl still used the same strawberry shampoo she did at Signal.

"Yang knows too," I said quietly, allowing the girl to rest her head on my shoulder – my good one. "Found out a few weeks back, before we joined the hierarchy."

Ruby shuffled around, placing a hand against my chest and leaning away from me. "But Weiss doesn't?"

I nodded, mute.

"Uh oh."

A short, barked laugh escaped me. "Yeah, don't think she'll like being left out." I thought it ironic that Ruby's first thought was to voice concern for Weiss, given the Schnee heiress once wanted Pyrrha Nikos in the younger girl's place.

"Hmm," Ruby murmured. "I think I just thought of a way to get you back in her good books!"

"Oh," I asked, raising an eyebrow. The girl frowned at that which caused me to reciprocate the gesture; I was uncertain what I did to upset her. "Ruby?"

Her eyes widened. "Oh! Uh… get Blake to tell her and make sure you mention that you told Blake to do it!"

"I don't want to force Blake to do anything," I said immediately. "If that means dealing with Weiss' ire until she cools off naturally, then I'll do it."

And it was _definitely _Weiss' ire that I had to deal with. I was apparently pretty beaten up after my fight with CRDL last week and returning to RWEBY's clubhouse, in retrospect, probably wasn't my most brilliant idea. Yang and Weiss were up in arms _immediately_. They wanted to go hunt CRDL down and make them pay – even Blake looked angry enough to start spitting fire. Ruby actually called Winchester a 'stupid butthead' and his teammates 'poop brains'.

Their reactions left me feeling appreciated and, despite my injuries, I couldn't frown if I wanted to for the rest of the night.

Of course, then I informed them that if they wanted to find CRDL, they'd have to check the medical room. And yes, I meant for _all _of them.

Yang's demeanor changed from angry to ecstatic in a split second and she hounded me until I told her the entire tale of how I 'kicked CRDL's butts to the curb and then down the street'. Blake was mollified and Ruby was almost as excited as her sister, going on and on about how awesome RWEBY was.

Weiss was the only one still upset with me and that was only because I refused to go to the medical room. My injuries weren't severe enough for it and though the rest of the team accepted that explanation, the Schnee heiress remained adamant that I see the nurse. I refused and she'd been angry at me ever since.

"Hmph," Ruby grunted. "Then what about if we go to the-" She gasped. "Let's go to the Medical Room now and tell her that _you _wanted to go because you felt bad!"

I laughed, prompting the girl to frown.

"Somehow I think she might see through that lie."

The girl frowned and it only deepened when I arched one of my eyebrows in askance.

"What's up," I asked.

She considered me, a thoughtful look on her face. Eventually, she nodded and spoke: "How do you do that?"

I arched an eyebrow again, confused-

"That!"

This time, I laughed long and hard and Ruby immediately started pouting.

* * *

**A/N: **I always have something specific I want to say here and I always manage to forget whatever it is. Oh well!

(01/18/2016) Revised. Again, since we're looking at a new shield here, if you look up 'kite shield dark souls' or something similar, you can see how Enten wields his!

**DoomLich: **Glad you like the conversation! Ruby is going to be a major focus as far as character development goes throughout the story. She always goes into a situation with the best of intentions but sometimes good intentions aren't what you need. Thanks for reviewing!

**Cthulujr: **I do my best to make Enten seem human so thank you! That, of course, often brings him into conflict with his team but… since when did people just magically get along? I like your observation too - who exactly is Ruby playing hero for? In her head that's a black and white question: the person in trouble. But what happens when your friends get hurt to save said person… She'll be put into some tough situations like that in the next several chapters. Can't wait!

**Lucifer Daemon: **Hah! That's one way to relieve tension, surely Neo will be amenable to it… Every broken nose just brings Enten one step closer to her bedroom… he'll never even suspect it… Thanks for the review!

**TheMAO17: **Romance is a difficult point for me – on the one hand there's plenty of room for interesting character development but on the other… how do you make it work with a guy that's technically twice as old as the rest of the characters in the fic? It'll be explored, I think, but I'm not sure where it'll go yet. I usually end up realizing 'hey, character xyz would react like this!' as I write a scene which ends up changing the next three chapters because they'd no longer be in character. I think that'll be how the romance bit goes – thanks for your review!

**Brainthief: **The pointest of pitchforks. Only the best for the minions! Enten as a fighter tends to take quite a bit more damage than Enten as a defender, as seen with CRDL (granted that _was _4v1 but still). Problem is: he doesn't have Yang's Semblance to deal with it! Also, mooks are slippery fiends, they tend to be forgotten and overlooked quite easily. Such is the life of an unvoiced character… like those mysteriously disappearing thugs, for example! I still think it's remarkable how you pick up on every subtle detail I put into the conversations/scenes – to the point where you noticed Weiss using 'It' to refer to a faunus and Blake/Yang's lack of defense on Ruby's part during the impulsivity argument.

I hope this chapter clarified somewhat why Enten thinks staying in first if important – he doesn't necessarily want to weaken the other teams but in this case it happens to be synonymous with staying at the top. Also – thanks for the tip, I corrected the MalamigY in the CFVY directory mistake. Thanks for the review and I hope this chapter is enjoyable to read!

**Backseat Driver: **I'm ridiculously happy you read it too! Even more so because you took the time to tell me that – it made me smile when I saw the review! Thanks!

**EVA-Saiyajin: **That would've been when Yang found out about Blake being a faunus. As for why it came up… well, a combination of Yang's protectiveness and Enten's insistence!

Thank you all for reading!

Till next time

-Phailen


	17. Chapter 17

_A few days later – Week 13 – Weekend_

"Enten! Enten Melkweg!"

Nikos' voice. She sounded angry and that fact immediately set me on edge. The girl was arguably the strongest fighter in our year and having her angry at me was not something I wanted. Did I do anything to Nikos? Not that I could think of, not recently… hell, not at all. I'd never faced her in class and never bad mouthed her – unlike many of my bitter classmates – despite the fact that she beat all of my teammates rather soundly. A fair fight was a fair fight. She was simply _better_.

I stopped, confused, with the rest of team RWEBY. We were on the outskirts of Beacon's campus now; near the giant cliff that overlooked Vale proper. It was a warm, calm afternoon and Weiss wanted to go see the decorations that were being put up for the Vytal Festival. Yang was all for it and Ruby was willing once I agreed to go – no Enten means no shield work, after all. The only dissenter was Blake, she dug her heels in the second our white haired teammate brought the Festival up. Given its generally anti-faunus demeanor, I could understand completely, but this was also a good chance for us to get out and see the town. It was a chance to me to take a break from all the school work and the plotting and the scheming that would keep RWEBY in first. It was a chance to get away from the Headmaster's app and the uncomfortable feeling that came over me whenever I saw Winchester-

'_Oh.'_

Dread crept over me quickly and I suddenly thought I knew _exactly _why Nikos sounded mad. _This was bad. __**Bad. **_Did Winchester tell? Did he gloat about getting one over on 'that RWEBY asshole'? Did he say he forced the information out of me? Did he say I gave it willingly? I didn't know but I _needed _to know otherwise-

'_Shit.'_

CRDL was unaware that JNPRknew that I knew about Jaune Arc's fake application. They thought _they _had the upper hand during their failed ambush; they thought that I just happened to bumble into giving them knowledge of The Council. That I didn't know why that information was important. That I was _innocent _bystanderin this entire situation. It was for that reason that I assumed – rather stupidly, in hindsight – that they would not let anyone know who told them of The Council because, for them, there was no apparent gain in it.

Of course, retrospectively, I could see Cardin Winchester trying to make Arc feel worse by telling him that I gave them that information purposefully...

'_Stupid!'_

Nikos was nearly in front of me when I turned around, red faced and sporting a severe frown. Behind her, the Arc boy walked, frowning as well. His was more of an unhappy expression, though, where the redhead's was rage incarnate.

"Just who do you think you are," the girl thundered lowly as she stopped in front of me, finger in my face. Her headdress was askew – I noticed – and her eyes were wild. Compared to the usually prim and proper girl I saw around Beacon daily, this redhead was almost another person entirely.

'_Dangerous.'_

"Anyone ever tell you that you look beautiful when you're angry?"

'_Right. So let's just piss her off more. Idiot.'_

She spluttered, her eyes wide – not in surprise but in even _more _rage because I was _such _a genius – and I heard Yang snort behind me.

"That's our lady killer," the blonde muttered, presumably to another member of our team. I heard Ruby coo and Blake laugh.

Frankly, I didn't know how to handle an angry Pyrrha Nikos so I just said the first thing that came to mind… It just happened to be an incredibly _bad _thing. But what was I supposed to do, anyway? Answer her question by giving her my name? If I let on that I _knew _what she was talking about then that'd just paint me a villain from the start. Which… would technically be accurate, from JNPR's point of view, but I wasn't quite ready to take credit for Arc's renewed troubles with Winchester.

And what troubles he was having… The boy looked like he hadn't slept in days and his last duel certainly supported that thought. He went up against Sky Lark and lost – _horribly_. The week before that it was Winchester himself. CRDL was actually rising in the class rankings and at least part of it had to do with the leverage they held over Jaune Arc's head. They were in fourth now because of that little detail and the fact that OPUL – their competition for the spot – had gotten unlucky, facing a dominate team RWEBY in two of their four matches. To add to the shake ups: JNPR dropped to being tied with JYDE for second at _5.5 _apiece while RWEBY sat at a comfortable _6.8 _after three weeks without a single loss. Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie were good fighters, as good as anyone on team RWEBY, but even with the still-undefeated Pyrrha Nikos on their team, they couldn't carry Jaune Arc all semester.

'_I just need a few more weeks.'_

The redhead in front of me, apparently over her verbal floundering, decked me across the chin. It was an effective, if not crude method of drawing me back to the conversation at hand.

I stumbled back, completely and utterly blindsided by the attack and _wow _she hit _hard!_ Comparable to Yang, even!

"Pyrrha," Ruby exclaimed even as Weiss and Blake stepped between myself and the redhead. Yang made a beeline for the girl and looked more than ready to punch her back – only her little sister's arm kept her from doing just that.

Their reactions made me smile. It was a comforting feeling that infused me, seeing how protective they were, seeing them take my side immediately and without question. I'd jump to their defense just as quickly and with just as much ferocity – witnessing them reciprocate that set me at ease. It served to return to me a feeling of normalcy in this situation. RWEBY stuck together. No matter what.

Along with the uplifting feeling, there was a lingering shroud of guilt sitting heavy on my mind as well. Not over the Arc boy's situation – I _did _feel guilty over that, but itwas a necessary evil. No, I was ashamed because I wasn't being entirely truthful with my team. Their reactions to Nikos' assault were not only comforting, but it was a painful reminder too. I was deceiving them via a lie of omission. I _knew _they probably wouldn't agree with my actions regarding the blond boy but that didn't change the fact that I did what I did, I said what I said, to help further RWEBY. To help us survive, to help us become great.

Anything to stay on top, after all. Anything to _live_.

Most of the first years, my teammates included, were still unaware of just how dangerous our profession was. Just how few retirement parties were thrown for hunters and huntresses. You either died in the field, you quit or you lost a limb. I was fully committed to making sure each member of RWEBY got to retire – still whole and complete.

I wanted us to live. And I was _not _going tobe stopped from seeing that through, regardless of whether or not my teammates understood. No matter who I had to step over… No matter how many second thoughts cropped up every time I saw Winchester-

'_No time for that now.'_

"I am sorry," Nikos said, drawing my attention back to the conversation at hand. The girl's jaw was rigid and her eyes were still fierce. Behind her, Arc's frown deepened. "But he deserved that and much, much more!"

My jaw popped when I shifted it and I winced. "Well if I knew you were that opposed to compliments-"

"Not that," the redhead cut across me, firm. "I am speaking of Cardin Winchester and _how _he found out that The Council of Three can override the Headmaster in… certain matters."

Her response was telling. My hand grasped my Scroll in my pocket, a nervous tick and probably a tell that RWEBY would pick up on but I couldn't go into this conversation at anything less than my best.

"You mean falsified-"

"Enten," Ruby exclaimed as Arc winced. The girl threw her hands over my mouth. "Not so loud!"

"Yes," Nikos hissed. "That is _exactly _what I mean."

She was looking at me expectantly now, as was the rest of my team. I was short on time because too much of a pause would look bad-

"Well," I said slowly, swallowing. "Were he the studying type, I'd say he just looked it up when Jaune, presumably, starting standing up to him… but I think we all know Cardin Winchester and co. aren't that smart or that dedicated. But he _did _find out?"

"Yes," the girl said shortly. It was odd how she was speaking for her leader but given the confidence issues – _'Issues made worse by you.' _– the boy experienced, it probably should have been expected. "He said _you _told him!"

And there it was. The catalyst that sparked her anger. Winchester said I _told _him. Not that he forced it out of me, not that I accidentally let it slip. The dumb oaf had gone and told the _truth _of all things… Maybe I should have pretended to lose the fight-

'_Don't let the silence linger!'_

"Well," I said after what I hoped would be taken as a shocked pause. I forced myself to meet the redhead's eyes – an action that was tougher than I expected. The 'invincible girl' had, without a doubt, stared down tougher challengers than I. "Uh, I didn't?"

I needed to find a way out of this. Think, fool. Think!

"He said you told him that The Council of Three can expel students even if the Headmaster disagrees," Jaune Arc said quietly, eying me with a suspicious look on his face. "That you told him fully knowing what that meant and that you did it willingly! Are you saying you didn't?"

Well if that wasn't an easy out to take…

"No."

Technically, I was pretty certain I never told Cardin that The Council could go over the Headmaster. My memory was a little foggy, but I thought I only said they would remove Jaune Arc if his application were, in fact, falsified.

"Then how did he learn about it," Nikos demanded, taking a threatening step forward. Yang growled low in her throat and moved to place herself between us. Blake was back at my side now and she started reaching toward Gambol Shroud. Weiss was on my other side, the girl was looking on with a critical eye and Ruby looked completely distraught.

"Wait," my leader said, looking at Arc. "You mean that stupid, fat… pudding brain is picking on you again?"

The blond boy nodded slowly, his frown deepening.

"Ohhh," Ruby growled, her fists clenched. "I'm gonna… I'm gonna… I'm gonna scratch up his weapon!"

"Vandalism," Blake muttered quietly and the younger girl deflated.

"Then… I don't know! How do we get him to stop now?!"

I held my tongue. There were plenty of ways to make sure Winchester left JNPR's leader alone but none of those ways would probably be accepted by my present company. Add to that the fact that I didn't _want _Winchester to stop and the minor detail of my voice potentially setting off Mt. Nikos again and I found it _very _easy to keep quiet.

"I don't know," Arc muttered. "I thought I was in the clear after you guys found me in that warehouse… if the Headmaster knew all this time then I wouldn't be expelled."

"Did he ever tell the Headmaster," Weiss asked. When she drew confused looks she clarified: "Cardin, that is. Did he ever tell the Headmaster about your application, Jaune?"

The boy shrugged, his cheeks a little pinker. "He said he would, something like two or three weeks ago, when I stood up to him. Nothing ever came of it though… guess that means Enten was right, huh?"

'_Ugh…'_

Nikos was still staring me down from Yang's other side, looking for all the world like she just needed a little push to start hounding me again. That was something I most definitely wanted to avoid but unfortunately, the Arc boy's mention of my name seemed to be just what she needed.

"Right about what," she demanded, glancing at her partner briefly and then returning her stare to me.

"About the Headmaster not kicking me out. Enten figured that since the Headmaster and Professor Goodwitch left me alone this long then they'd probably leave me alone for good."

"And he was right," Weiss inserted. "So why would he have any reason to tell Cardin about The Council after he helped you out, Jaune?"

The boy shrugged even as Nikos growled. Yang tensed but I placed my hand on her shoulder. I didn't want this to dissolve into a brawl. That would draw more attention to us and attention was something I wanted to avoid.

"We just know what Cardin told me," the blond said.

"Weiss is right," Ruby exclaimed, frowning. "Enten would never do that! He's on your flank! I mean, side!"

"Why don't we let _Enten_ speak for himself," Nikos cut in, still glaring at me. It was abundantly clear to me that she believed Winchester… or maybe she was just looking for a scapegoat because it was her crush suffering? I didn't know and I doubted I could lie my way out of this, mostly because lying was something that I wasn't adept at. What I was adept at, though, was observing.

"Winchester wants to keep picking on Jaune," I started. "His first route of attack, so to speak, failed when I realized that the Headmaster wasn't going to be kicking Jaune out any time soon. It follows then that Winchester would either pick a new target or find a new way to bully Jaune."

Oh I knew where I was going to go with this now! And all it took was a little bit of reasoning.

"It's clear he hasn't chosen a new target," I said, a sardonic smile on my face that the Arc boy returned. Good – less suspicion from the victim would go a long way to proving my innocence. "So instead he found something else to hang over Jaune's head. I am not Winchester – I don't know how his mind works or if he even thought of picking up a book on The Council. But I _do _know that he _hates _both Pyrrha and I."

I let that thought simmer for a few seconds. Nikos was still staring at me though now it was through narrowed eyes rather than a full on glare. Yang wasn't as tense and was now on my side, next to Blake. Weiss was watching me, blank faced as ever, and Ruby was starting to gain that awed look again.

The tide was starting to turn. Blame – formerly laid upon my shoulders – was starting to shift.

"I also happen to know that Winchester _loathes _the fact that his team is weaker than both RWEBY and JNPR. So: he has two targets that he can blame learning about The Council on. Which one do you think makes more sense? That Pyrrha – Jaune's _trainer _– would sell him out to the bully, or that I – a fighter from a rival team who happened to break said bully's nose – would spill the beans?"

"That… makes sense," Nikos allowed slowly. "But that still doesn't tell us how Cardin learned about The Council in the first place."

I shrugged and because she was still looking at me, offered: "CRDL just joined a hierarchy. ONGE might know more about Beacon's administrative pecking order."

A contemplative silence fell over the group then and I took the opportunity to study the conversation's participants.

Ruby was staring at me, wide eyed and with her mouth slightly open. I knew she never failed to be impressed by my observations and the conclusions I could draw from them; I thought her ability to come up with strategies in the middle of battle then communicate them, all whileshe was fighting, was equally impressive. I gave her a smile and then mimed closing my mouth – the girl did so with a blush a half second later. She then grinned at me and gave me a thumbs up.

I next looked to Weiss, for all the good it would do. The Schnee heiress was better at hiding her feelings and emotions behind a neutral front than she was when we first started at Beacon. I knew she experienced very little interaction with people inside her family's mansion so I could only assume that she was learning to hide those emotions better as she grew more accustomed to speaking with her peers. It made sense and the fact that I was able to read her better at the start of the semester than I could now supported the theory. I gave her a nod that she reciprocated and looked to Blake.

A laugh nearly escaped me. The faunus was reading her book again – an object that she put away once the confrontation with Nikos and Arc started. It was an old war story that I saw her with often, the same one she took with her the morning I found out about her faunus nature, actually. It had to be the third time she'd read it since coming to Beacon – maybe one day I could ask to borrow it.

Yang was still slightly in front of me, off to the side but close enough to intervene should Nikos attack, and I saw that she had her arms crossed when I looked at her. Her muscles were no longer so tense and that was definitely a good thing. Still, it was a heartening feeling that enveloped me when I realized she would jump to my defense at a moment's notice – and against one of her other friends, no less – despite not knowing my aggressor's reasons for hitting me. Were I not so certain she would disapprove of my actions, I would have told her immediately about my efforts to keep JNPR down so RWEBY could stay safe. She deserved no less from me.

Arc and Nikos were the people I was most interested in studying and they were next on my list. My path to innocence lay through them, after all.

Nikos' brow was furrowed and she was looking at the ground now. Her eyes were no longer wild and though she _did _have a frown on her face, there was no anger present in her expression, only frustration. She was likely trying to figure out how Winchester found out about The Council. Or perhaps she was trying to think of a way to get the bully off of her crush's back?

There were plenty of ways but I was almost certain none of them would occur to the redhead. She was far too noble, far too naïve to exploit them. Or maybe I was just a little too jaded. Death did that. Whatever the reason, I very much doubted she would think of anything.

The Arc boy was frowning too, though his expression was very clearly sadder than his partner's. It made me feel sorry for doing what I did to him. I held no ill will toward Jaune Arc. I did not _dislike _him… though I certainly did not respect him either, falsifying his application to Beacon was irresponsible, borderline suicidal and were he on my team then he would have been reported to The Council on day one.

But no. He was not my problem, he was JNPR's. It was unfortunate that he needed to be used like this but it was also unfortunate that he was at Beacon at all. It only mattered to me now because I could _use _his presence. Before… he was just that one horrible fighter on JNPR. Now, he was… as heartless as it sounded, a _pawn _that I could use to better RWEBY's chances of survival.

Ruby groaned suddenly. "Why can't he just leave you alone," she verbalized to the Arc boy.

He stayed silent and shrugged his shoulders in response.

"Well," Nikos said slowly, after a pause. "I'm sorry for hitting you, Enten. I was… frustrated. Perhaps Cardin only used you as a scapegoat, to create conflict between us and I walked right into his scheme." She sighed and her shoulders drooped. "Come on, Jaune. Let's go find Ren and Nora. We have some training to do."

The boy hung his head, shuffling along by the redhead's side as they retreated. "I can't, Cardin told me to meet him-"

The rest of the conversation was lost to us as they walked away, leaving RWEBY in an awkward, downtrodden silence. I half considered offering to just switch out Arc's falsified application for a real one – that was a solution I was sure they'd be amenable to – but my practical side took over before I ruined the effort I'd put into getting RWEBY a lead. A few more weeks. A few more dueling classes to pad our lead… maybe then…

Because we certainly had a lead now… over a full point. Of course, a point could be lost with one bad week and every team was vulnerable to having an off day. Yes, better we lengthen our lead more before I considered helping out.

"Something feels… off," Weiss muttered, watching the pair walk away with a critical eye. "I don't know what it is but _something _doesn't feel right about this."

"Of course something doesn't feel right! Jaune can't get stupid-fat-awful Cardin to leave him _alone_," Ruby said emphatically, stomping her boot with each of her insults.

"Not that," the Schnee heiress replied. "I mean that _is _bad, but I meant about _how _Cardin found out. In particular how he had the forethought to plan out a scapegoat – I didn't think he had it in him. And further: why would he need a scapegoat? He's trying to hide the person who told him of The Council – but why?"

I considered arguing against her but in the end, decided to stay silent. Refraining from mentioning what I told Winchester was one thing; actively working to deceive my team was another entirely. As of right now, none of them ever asked me if I did, in fact, let Winchester know about The Council. If they did, then I'd tell the truth because I owed them that much, but until then I could try to convince myself I wasn't lying to them because they never asked.

A lie of omission.

It was a risky game I was playing, I knew.

On the one hand, RWEBY grew stronger with every day Arc dragged JNPR down but on the other… the fallout that would doubtlessly follow my actions might just tear my team apart at the seams.

It was for that reason that I decided I would not lie to them. Hopefully, they would _understand_.

"I mean," Yang started, frowning as she scratched her head. "He _did _try to use Jaune against Enten… I don't think Cardin has it in him to do anything _too _complicated but he's not a total idiot either…"

Weiss hummed. "That's true. And he certainly has a reason to go after our coder, especially given Enten bested the entirety of CRDL…" Her voice was sardonic, now. "_Without _going to the medical room, no less."

Oh, apparently there was still some lingering annoyance over the whole medical room issue.

"That's right," Ruby said, a thoughtful frown on her face. "You whooped CRDL's butts! And- Oh! That was right around when Jaune started acting weird again! Did Cardin say anything about JNPR or Jaune while you were punching his dumb, fat face in?!"

Well if this wasn't the most inconvenient time for Ruby to practice her logical thinking, I'd volunteer was Weiss' luggage-boy. Still, I could appreciate the irony – the girl I was trying to coach into thinking more rationally was using that coaching to unknowingly out me over the whole how-does-Cardin-know-about-The-Council drama.

I shook my head. "There wasn't much said while that was going on." Which was true. Winchester didn't say much when I was punching his face in.

Ruby deflated, scuffing her boot on the ground.

"You said he was yelling about RWEBY and JNPR when you told us about the fight a few weeks ago," Yang noted, a faraway look in her eye. There was a grin on her face and I figured she was probably reliving the events of the story in her head.

"He had to have said _something_," Weiss said. "You said he started out in control of the situation… did he gloat at all?"

"Uh, yes," I said, legitimately trying to remember what the boy said. It'd been a while, the exact words were hard to recall. "He wanted me to throw fights against his teammates. And… And he threatened my sister."

The Schnee heiress nodded. "Which in turn set you off. I imagine conversation died off at that point..."

"Hey, when did Cardin start ranting about JNPR and RWEBY? I thought you said that was before," Yang asked, returning to the conversation with a confused look on her face.

I shook my head. "That was after."

"After the fight?"

I nodded my head, silent.

"Didn't you say they were out of it when the fight was over?"

"Uh," I murmured. Had I said that? What _actually _happened? I knew Winchester was still on his feet after the fight. "Mostly. Unable to fight anyway. Not necessarily unconscious. Winchester wasn't, anyway."

Weiss frowned. "So… you _did _talk after you beat them?"

I nodded again, uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was heading. I never even lied and I was managing to screw this up badly enough that they were suspicious. It could only be my nerves – I very much doubted I'd ever be this nervous if I hadn't just been stared down by Pyrrha _god-damn _Nikos who was _much _taller when she was in your face. There was also the fact that I was wholeheartedly trying _not _to lie but at the same time, not tell them about the _actual _events of the CRDL ambush…

The Schnee heiress glanced down at my hand which-

I removed the appendage in question from my pocket, where it'd been grasping my Scroll for who knows how long.

"Enten," Weiss said slowly. "Do you remember what was said after the fight?"

I stayed silent, briefly glancing at my other teammates to gauge their reactions. Blake was eying me almost as stoically as Weiss was; Yang was looking at me too though her expression was more neutral, less suspicious than her teammates'. Ruby was the same way, she looked curious about what I could or could not remember but clearly didn't think anything was amiss.

_Yet._

"The rants about RWEBY and JNPR," Blake intoned quietly from my side.

"Right," I nodded, conceding the point to the cat faunus. "That happened after the fight."

"Enten," Weiss said again. She waited until I looked at her to continue. "You didn't… Did you…"

I frowned. "Did I…" I prompted, as if it were necessary. I should have known Weiss and Blake would be able to pick apart the story once it was questioned. Nothing left to do now but come clean. Own up to what I did and explain why I did it."

The Schnee heiress swallowed. "You didn't tell Cardin about The Council… did you?"

Ruby made a surprised sound. "We just went over-"

"I did," I said, holding eye contact with the heiress. My teammates instantly went silent. "And I had then, and still have now, a good reason for doing it. One that I'd rather not talk about here."

Because we were outside where anyone could overhear us. On the outskirts of Beacon's campus, granted, but still outside and very much vulnerable to eavesdroppers.

"You-" Weiss' eyes widened and she threw a glance in the direction Nikos and Arc disappeared not three minutes earlier. "Enten!"

I stayed silent and instead turned from the girl to observe my other teammates. It was clear to me that Weiss very much disapproved of what I'd done, the rare crack in her public face showed me that much. The widening of her eyes, the way her hands flew to her mouth, the way her posture _slumped_ – because Weiss Schnee _never _slumped – all spoke to me of genuine horror.

That was… a shock to me. Of all my teammates, I figured the girl would be the most amenable to what I was trying to do. Granted… she didn't know my explanation yet, maybe her opinion would change once she saw there was a method to my madness.

Yang was frowning but I expected that much from the girl. She was protective of Ruby first and her friends second. She didn't see that what I'd done was meant to help protect RWEBY as a whole either – of course she would disapprove.

Blake was blank faced. I knew enough of the girl's past to know that she played a part in many _questionable _activities in the name of furthering the faunus' equality cause. Maybe, then, she wouldn't judge me outright. That was all I could ask for, especially given how bad this looked.

Ruby… I looked to her last because I knew what her reaction- Yeah, she looked betrayed. The girl considered Jaune Arc a good friend, after all. She looked absolutely crushed already and I realized, belatedly, that I was about to make her choose between me and JNPR's leader. The grimace was hard to keep off of my face, but I managed.

"Like I said, I have-"

"You really told Cardin about The Council," Ruby asked. The expression on her face was one that I could only describe as inconsolable. The wide eyes. The sinking brow. All of it spoke to me of sadness.

I studied her silently for a second, then, quietly: "I did."

There it was. The admission. The confirmation. I imagined it was starting to sink in-

"Ruby," I bit out when the girl turned around and started marching back toward campus. "What are-"

"I'm going to tell Jaune and Pyrrha the truth and then- And _then _you're going to apologize!" She whirled back around and stomped over to me, her eyebrows furrowed in anger and a fierce scowl on her face. "And _then_ you're going to figure out a way to make this _right!"_

My hand returned to my Scroll, in my pocket. "I can't do that," I said quietly, frowning as I met Ruby's eyes. "I'll expl-"

"There's no excuse!"

"Better be a damned good one," Yang muttered, her arms crossed now. She was still frowning.

I swallowed and, because Ruby turned back toward campus, said quickly: "I did it for this team. For RWEBY."

"How does making Jaune get bullied help RWEBY," the girl asked, furious, as she whirled around to face me again. "Have you seen him? Did you see how sad he was? Why would you do that to him?!"

"So our team could- So we can _survive_."

Bringing up keeping the first spot in the rankings outright would do me no favors here. I knew Ruby valued JNPR's friendship more than keeping the top spot because she didn't _understand _what it meant to be number one. The potential that was there. The power. She was too focused on the here and now, rather than the long term, and right now she saw Arc getting bullied daily and wanted to do something about it.

That was fine, admirable even. But what she didn't see was how cruel Remnant was. It showed in the way she charged into a room of unknowns to save a friend. Again, that was admirable but it was also _incredibly _stupid. Thankfully she was starting to think things through before she acted without all the information but clearly she was still prone to action without thought given she wanted to go to JNPR _now _before I told her _why _I did what I did.

At least now the girl was stunned, incredulity written into every contour of her face. Her mouth was moving wordlessly.

"Enten," Weiss said slowly, clearing her throat. The girl was staring at me, just as neutral as Blake, but given it was Weiss, that only meant her public face was back. "Perhaps you should expand on that: how does instigating Cardin's bullying of Jaune even _remotely _help RWEBY as a team survive?"

I swallowed, uncomfortable with speaking outside like this but the Schnee heiress cleared her throat again and I knew they weren't going to let me go without an explanation. That was something I needed to get out too – my side of the story. If Ruby heard that and _still _wanted to tell JNPR of my actions...

"The short of it?" I swallowed. This wasn't going to go over well but given how volatile my leader was right now I doubted I'd be able to get even a few sentences into my explanation before she cut in or ran off. I needed to keep it short and sweet. I needed to keep her _here_. "It helps us keep first place in the rankings."

"So _what?! _You're making Jaune's life _horrible _because you want to be the best?!" Ruby scoffed and stomped up to me, her hands thrown into the air. "I can't believe-"

"_I didn't do it to be the best,"_ I said over her. Once Ruby stopped speaking, I reiterated: "I didn't do this to be the best. That number one next to our team name in the dueling hall means _nothing _to me. It's the _benefits _that come with being number one that are important."

"We _do _get stuff for being number one… but," Yang muttered. She sounded uncertain. "I mean, I guess getting first pick in missions helps our odds at success and all that but is it really necessary to resort to… to… _backstabbing _Jaune?"

"I don't know," I said and the blonde's brow furrowed. "Maybe? Who knows? Who knows if getting first pick in missions might help us? It could, certainly, but-"

"That still doesn't give you any reason-"

"It _does, _Ruby," I spat. "Because being first means more than walking up to some board before the other teams so we can type our name in. It does more than give us bragging rights in dueling class. It helps in ways that I don't think you're considering."

A silence descended over us then, only broken by Ruby's heavy breathing. The girl's eyes were incredibly wide now. She was _furious_.

"Then tell us," Blake said.

"Not here-"

"_Yes_, here," Weiss said. I threw a startled glance her way just in time to see her features relax. She was mad, then. That was bad. That was unexpected. Had I miscalculated? I thought she would approve. I thought she, of all people, would see the necessity-

Ruby huffed and I realized then that silence was stretching over us.

"We have an interview next week," I started slowly, frowning uncertainly. Ruby made to interrupt but I held a hand up to stall her comment. The interaction returned to me some semblance of normalcy in the conversation – I _knew _Ruby was mad… but Weiss' anger threw me off.

"We have an interview next week," I repeated, my voice stronger this time. "Why? Why would Vale News Network care about our team? Why would they bother with coming to Beacon to see us? Especially since the Vytal Festival is just a few weeks away and the other nations are declaring their teams for the tournament."

I stopped speaking and silence immediately took over when none of the girls answered. I could tell Weiss knew – she was starting to lose her composure – but I doubted she'd actually state the reason for the interview.

"RWEBY's first," Blake muttered. "JNPR got interviews too."

"Back when they were in first," I nodded. "But now? Who cares? They're in second. Second doesn't matter. Second isn't interesting to read about. Second might as well be-"

"Interviews," Ruby demanded. "You think interviews will help us survive? And survive what? Against that… against CRDL?"

"They will," I assured her. "Not because we get an article in the paper or a segment on the evening news, but because of who sees us."

"There's something to be said about good publicity and the power it brings," Weiss said carefully, slowly. "But there's also something to be said about maintaining good rapport with your classmates!"

"And we do! We _have _good relationships with our classmates! Some students are jealous of us but aside from team CRDL, we aren't at odds with any other first year teams!"

"Yes," Weiss allowed, snorting. It spoke volumes to me how angry she was when she never even made an attempt to cover up the gesture. "Until JNPR finds out-"

"Who said they need to find out?"

"This is _insane_," Ruby cut in. "Jaune's our friend! He's _your _friend!"

"I wouldn't say _friend_. I'm about as close to him as I am our other classmates: we've been introduced."

The boy was Ruby's friend, sure. He might even sort of be a… something to Weiss as well, given his crush on her. Something more than just a face in the crowd, whether that cast him in a negative or a positive light for the Schnee heiress… well, it was probably negative. But beyond those two, the blond was really more of an acquaintance to RWEBY. He was our former neighbor before we joined a hierarchy and, once upon a time, we used to eat lunch with him and his team fairly frequently. Now… well, until today I hadn't actually seen Arc outside of class since the week we dragged his ass back to Beacon.

Calling him a friend was going a little too far.

I grunted, clearing my mind of the thoughts. I needed an olive branch here. Some kind of common ground. Something to get the conversation back on track.

"Look," I started, meeting Ruby's glare with a neutral stare. "I know what I signed up for by coming to Beacon. I know I'm obligated to protect Vale's citizens from the Grimm. Fine – I'll do that, no questions asked. I might not feel some of the people in that city," I gestured out across the cityscape, "are _worth _protecting but I sacrificed the ability to make that call to come here. What I _didn't _sign up for was protecting the hunters and huntresses of Vale and the students at this school."

"They're Vale citizens too," Ruby protested. "And you went and made Jaune's life _horrible _and now JNPR is going to have a harder time surviving!"

"But RWEBY won't."

The younger girl exhaled through her nose and shoved her head into her hands.

"RWEBY will get stronger by being in first place," I stated, and it was true. I just didn't think they realized _how _strong we _could _get with first. It all depended upon how well we used the position. "We'll get more publicity, more attention, more benefits, _everything _we might need to be the best we can possibly be. And why do we need that? Why do we need all of that stuff – to the point where I felt it necessary to sabotage another team to protect our interests? Why?"

That was a fair question and one – judging by the look on her face – that Weiss wanted answered. Yang too. Ruby, I thought, was still beyond rational thought.

"Because the Grimm don't care. They don't care if we're number one or we're number six. They don't care if we're first years or fourth years. They _don't care. _The _only _thing they care about is ending life and you better believe they'll kill a first place team with the same ferocity that they would a seventh place team."

I paused, long enough to swallow and clear my throat. "The difference is that first place team is probably a good deal stronger than that seventh place team. They probably have a better hierarchy. Better connections. Better training. Better weaponry. Better battlefield experience. Better _everything_. A better chance to _live_.

"The difference between first and second – even first and _fifth _– might seem small in here, behind Beacon's walls, but out there it might just mean the difference between life and death. In here we get to choose our missions first and brag a little more that we whooped some butt in dueling class – so what? Out there, though…"

They still looked uncertain – Weiss, Yang and Ruby at least. The latter was actually still fuming but at least she wasn't yelling anymore. She was considering my words and it looked like she disagreed vehemently with every single one. I hoped she was at least giving them some thought rather than being difficult just to be difficult.

"Fine. How about an example?" I paused and brought up my Scroll, during my research on JNPR I'd come across a few very interesting details. "Pyrrha Nikos competed in, and won, four Mistral tournaments in a row. She set records in each tournament, from quickest bout to least blows taken to most accomplished fighter. She went undefeated in the preliminaries and each tour-"

"We know," Weiss cut in, an annoyed-looking scowl on her face. "We _know _what Pyrrha did in each tournament. We don't need to hear about it again."

"And that's my point," I said, nodding to the white haired girl. "You know all about Pyrrha Nikos. Now, who placed second?"

Yang looked down at the ground and grinned wryly, clearly having caught on. Weiss made a sound in the back of her throat that sounded like a half-angry, half-annoyed growl.

"No? What about third? Fourth? Any year is fine…" I waited a full five seconds before I continued. "You see what I mean? The 'invincible girl' didn't get strong based upon her fame and notoriety alone, but it did get her sponsorship deals. Sponsorship deals worth a pretty penny. You think she'd have had the money to travel from continent to continent and compete in tournament after tournament without some big names backing her? I'd bet my ass she couldn't. And those extra tournaments _did _make her stronger."

"Who was second," Ruby demanded of me. "Cause they matter too! _Everyone _matters!"

"Ye'lo Malamig," I responded, my voice quiet. "She placed second after Nikos every year. Four times she faced the girl and each time the disparity in skill grew. By the end of the fourth year… well, the stories aren't exactly a shining review of Malamig."

"But she's still super strong," my leader argued. "She's nearly undefeated in class right now. She only has _one _loss!"

"And Nikos has none," I countered. "That one loss might seem small in here, but out there? Have you heard of any hunters that won every battle they were in against the Grimm, except for one?"

Ruby growled and shook her head. "We can get strong enough to fight the Grimm _and _help our classmates! There's strength in numbers, you know. If we all work together to fight the Grimm then we'll be stronger than we would as just one team! And you're making those other teams weaker! You're not protecting the people out there," she said, throwing an arm out in the direction of the city proper, "you're putting them in danger."

I glanced out at the city, a frown on my face now. She had a point. By making JNPR weaker I _was _technically putting the citizens of Vale in danger… but… "When I'm assigned a mission to protect them, I'll give it my all to make sure no _civilians _get hurt. But until I'm sent out there, my mission is to make sure RWEBY survives _our _missions, at any and all costs."

"That's- You- _Argh!"_

"While I appreciate the thought," Yang muttered, bumping her shoulder into mine. "You sure are going about it in a way that makes me uncomfortable. Do you really think it's necessary to sabotage other teams? Just so we have the best shot at…"

She trailed off and glanced at her little sister then. The younger girl was pacing with her eyes screwed shut, muttering under her breath and very clearly trying not to hit the 'stupid shield moron'.

"Do you really think it'll come down to that? Living or dying depending on whether or not we're first here?"

It was strikingly similar to her previous question and that struck me as odd. Yang Xiao Long decided how she felt about something and moved on. That was it. There was no hesitation, no backtracking and no room for doubt. Unless she learned something new or her circumstances changed, her opinions were her opinions were her opinions. I'd never seen her change them and I _rarely _saw her struggle to form one.

"I don't know," I said again and again she frowned. "But I _do _know that I don't want to learn the difference between first and second _is _life or death as a Grimm charges me."

"Yeah," she grunted. "This is just… I can't approve of what you're doing to Jaune. He's a nice guy – awkward and clumsy – but a nice guy that doesn't deserve this."

"I agree," I said. "He doesn't deserve any of this. Unfortunately for him, he's the easiest way to keep JNPR under RWEBY."

"Wow. Cold much," Yang asked, her eyes wide in surprise. Beside her, Blake had turned from her book to me, eying me with an unreadably neutral look on her face.

"What were my other options? Nikos is untouchable because of her backers – anything done against her or any accusations laid on her shoulders are going to be picked apart by the corporations who ride on her coattails. The other two were unknowns-"

"They're our friends," Ruby stated.

I turned to the younger girl to find her with a neutral look on her face now. There was still a slight furrow to her brow and a rigidness to her jaw that suggested annoyance, frustration and anger, though.

"They're our competition."

"I don't know where you got it in your head that all of this," the girl gestured to Beacon's campus in general, "is a competition, but it's not! When we fight the Grimm, it's not 'RWEBY vs bad guys', it's 'humanity vs bad guys'."

"You're right," I admitted, a scowl on my face. The 'we're all friends' angle was one I should have expected from Ruby. "But that only works if _everyone _thinks like you. What about the White Fang? What about those criminals from the warehouses?"

"They're the bad guys!"

"Like the Grimm," I asked. "Because-"

"No! The Grimm are against _everyone_ and _everyone _is against the Grimm. Just… those guys are bad guys too."

"So are we supposed to protect those bad guys from the Grimm too?"

"I- They can… No. No! Because they're bad guys who break the law!"

"Those bad guys are people too, Ruby. They have families and friends, ambitions-"

"Yeah but if they steal and kill and stuff then they're bad and they need to be locked up!"

"Are they part of the 'everyone' side in everyone vs Grimm?"

"Well, yeah… The Grimm are after _everyone _so just by default they're on… on our side. Kind of…"

"Alright," I nodded. "They're on our side but only against the Grimm. What happens when the Grimm aren't part of the equation? They still look like us. They still talk like us. They still go to the same shops and restaurants and schools as us. Do you think they have _any _problem _whatsoever _with killing a pair of teenagers if we crash their warehouse raid?"

The girl groaned low in her throat. "No…"

"It's not 'everyone vs the Grimm', Ruby," I said softly. "It's never that simple. It will never be that simple. Anyone and everyone could be an enemy."

The girl sighed. "But Jaune? He's not an enemy. He's another student and he wouldn't even hurt a fly! He's super nice and really tries hard to get better and he can't do that if you keep treating him like an enemy!"

"He's not an enemy, not right now, anyway."

"So what, in the future you think he could be a threat," the girl scoffed. "That's crazy!"

"He could be," I insisted. "But that's not why I targeted him specifically. If that were true then I'd have to target every single student in this school on the off chance that they might become a threat to team RWEBY in the future. That's crazy. No, I targeted him because I wanted RWEBY to be the best we could be and he was the easiest way I could keep JNPR from becoming a threat to our first place ranking."

"I'm still gonna tell him," Ruby decided. "I don't agree with you and I think you're a big butt face for doing this to Jaune and I'm still gonna tell him that you told Cardin – _on purpose _– about The Council."

"Alright," I said, shrugging. "But when Jaune is forced to leave Beacon by The Council, he'll have only _you _to blame for it."

"_What?! _He's not gonna leave! Telling him won't-"

"Sure it will. When JNPR cuts ties with me – maybe even RWEBY – over this, what are you gonna tell people when they ask? How are you going to explain away a hatred growing overnight?"

"I'll- They won't _hate _you! And besides, Pyrrha was already angry at you!"

"Not anymore," I responded. "Not unless you tell her about what I did."

She growled, clearly frustrated. "But they _still _won't hate you!"

"Sure they will. You saw Nikos earlier. You saw her punch me. She was ready to rip my head off _before _she confirmed that I told Winchester. What do you think she'll do _after _she learns it was all true? After she learns I lied to her face?"

Ruby stayed quiet, her breathing now audible again. Her fists were clenched at her sides and she was resolutely staring at a point over my shoulder.

"People will talk. They'll want to know why the famous 'invincible girl' suddenly got into a fight with some no-name schmuck at Beacon. They'll ask questions and, eventually, they'll figure it out. And when that happens, Jaune is gone… And you'll have no one but yourself to blame. So think about it: do you really want to tell JNPR about this?"

The girl growled and clenched her eyes shut. "I don't like you," she decided, snapping her gaze up to me in a glare a few seconds later. "No- I mean… Just… don't talk to me!"

With that she whirled around and stomped off toward Beacon proper, her gait clearly threatening.

"That was low," Yang muttered, cross now. "She better get an apology from you after she cools down."

I grunted and the blonde moved to follow her sister. She wasn't angry, at least I didn't think so, but she was certainly annoyed at me. Whether that frustration sprouted from my guilt-trip or the actual act of sabotaging JNPR, I didn't know.

"And Enten," Yang called, turning around suddenly. "When all of this comes back to bite you in the ass, you better believe you'll hear about it from me."

With that she spun around and started trotting after her sister. I watched as the blonde caught up with the dark haired girl and drew her into a hug. Ruby went willingly into the embrace.

"I still don't think all of this was worth it," Weiss said, eying our two team members. "You could have damaged our social standing irreparably among our classmates. All for some theoretical strength that staying in first will give us. That is _unacceptable_."

"No mention of 'innocent little Jaune'," I noted, staring moodily after Yang and Ruby. The two sisters were drawing apart now, the elder slung her arm over the younger's shoulder and they slowly started ambling back to Beacon's campus.

'_Protectiveness incarnate.'_

"He never should have been here in the first place," Weiss responded, scowling now. "But still… he's a sort-of friend. It makes me uneasy, how practical you are sometimes, you know. You speak of him like he's not a human being. Like he's just some pawn on a chessboard… It takes a special kind of mind to think like that, Enten, and it's not always good for those close to you, despite your intentions."

Her piece said, she walked off, trailing after her teammates. I frowned, unnerved with the confidence in her voice. It almost sounded like she was speaking from experience… her father, perhaps? Was I starting to behave like her father? I didn't know the man but I could only assume that it cast me in a bad light…

Ruby burst out laughing then and Yang followed suit shortly after. Weiss managed to catch up with the siblings, given they stopped in their mirth.

I glanced at Blake, the cat faunus was still at my side, her book nowhere to be seen.

"Are heroes naïve," I asked the girl quietly, numbly, the frown still on my face. "Or are they heroic?"

'_Am I right?'_

"Naïve," Blake said, staring after Ruby.

I mulled over her words for a moment, then: "And what am I?"

'_Do you agree?'_

"Ruthless."

* * *

_Later that evening – Week 13 – Weekend_

"Boys," I greeted, dropping into a seat at a picnic table that was located some ways from Beacon's main population centers. It was just secluded enough to get some peace and quiet for homework or to do some light reading.

Or for scheming. It was no small wonder the app told me they were here.

"What do you want," Cardin Winchester spat, his face contorting into a deep scowl. All around him, his teammates either glared or growled threateningly.

I ignored the tone of his voice and the hostile atmosphere. I came here for a reason. RWEBY's nearly unanimous disapproval at my actions shook me. I did not want to be at odds with my teammates because they were more than just teammates. They were my friends.

My friends did not want me to actively sabotage our classmates anymore. Fine. But I refused to sit idle.

"We need to have a talk about keeping our mouths _shut_," I muttered to the table at large. After letting that statement stew for a moment, I pulled out my Scroll. "And _then_, we're going to have a talk about our classmates fighting styles."

CRDL was safe for RWEBY in their predictability. The bullies didn't have it in them to plan out strategies for certain opponents in class because I doubted they understood how important the ranking system was beyond the right to gloat about higher rankings and a base need to be the best.

So, I would do that for them. For every student in the class, they would have a strategy… except RWEBY, of course.

We needed CRDL to be better against our opponents. Not us.

RWEBY was not going to be another MRCY.

* * *

**A/N: **Woah. That one was a doozy. Getting every member of team RWEBY's reactions straight plus Jaune and Pyrrha? Talk about difficult. I spent quite a bit of time fine tuning their responses/facial expressions but there was a lot that needed to be portrayed here. Hopefully I gave all of you an accurate picture!

Let's see if we can't get to 100 reviews this time around. It'd be _awesome _to break triple digits!

**Enerjack: **Thanks! I think the mark of a good character is not having to _create _conflict around them, but to have them be a part of it, just by acting as they would. Enten is more than willing to get his hands dirty and that is obviously going to clash with his team. Hope you enjoyed their initial reactions and thanks for the review!

**ForeignNinja: **I hope this chapter cleared up Enten's motives a little bit. I was pressed for space last chapter and given he wasn't going to think the entire situation through while he was being ambushed, had to leave quite a bit out. Thanks for the review!

**AlekTas: **I think Ruby, Yang and Weiss would agree with you. First place isn't worth hurting JNPR over – Enten just disagrees. At any rate, hopefully this chapter cleared up his motives. Thinking an action through fully during an ambush isn't exactly believable, I ended up having to leave a lot of the logic behind telling CRDL of The Council for this chapter. Thanks for the review!

**Hunter81095: **Thanks for the review! I think you about described Enten's thoughts on the matter perfectly with it… difficult but necessary.

**DoomLich: **Lots of potential for conflict in the future, given the direction Enten is going, this is true. Weiss has hinted at it and Yang has too. Ruby disagrees with him outright. Who will end up being correct? Is anyone _really _correct? Thanks for the review!

**Xuan Tian Shang Ti:** You're right – Enten is knowingly making JNPR weaker and thereby weaking humanity's defense against the Grimm. On the other hand, he's making RWEBY stronger and thereby strengthening humanity's defense against the Grimm. It all comes down to whether or not it's worth it… does the cost outweigh the reward or visa versa? Thanks for your review!

**TheMAO17: **Hierarchies aren't nice, that's for sure. Though they do encourage strength, it comes a brutal and very high cost. The other schools will have much to say of them, once their teams start arriving. Vale is… something of an outlier. Hope you enjoyed the RWEBY conversation and thanks for your review!

**Lucifer Daemon: **Someday I want to make a deleted scene with that as the context…

**Guest: **Thanks for your review and your kind words! I put a lot of effort into making Enten real, giving him reasons and emotions. It's nice to hear that it's noticed! You struck gold with your hierarchy point! There's a method to my madness… and much madness to follow the method…

**Brianthief: **Yeah it cut off your review… fanfiction is out to get you, I swear. I love subplots and love hinting about them… I try to keep a good half dozen going at any given time. It's _such _a pain in the ass to remember them but I think it's worth it. Stay tuned for UHNS developments, they kind of got the short end of the stick as far as leaders go. Sjeverni, at least.

Now, I appreciate you pointing out _why _Enten's actions seemed malicious because I certainly didn't mean to portray them that way. Rushed, hurried and not well thought out… sure. But not intentionally evil in a I'm-doing-this-because-I-can type of way. He has his reasons and he's not entirely comfortable with what he's doing… but a necessary evil is a necessary evil. His teammates just happen to disagree. And yeah, as a final note… that'll be observational skills from Ruby herself. She's growing up so fast!

**Ventusblade: **UHNS = Uranus. HRCN = Hurricane. And thanks! You're the only one who mentioned catching that little reference!

And with that, I leave you. Until next time!

-Phailen

**Edit: **(07/17/2015) I'll be gone next week on vacation - next chapter will land on the 31st. Happy reading!


	18. Chapter 18

_One week later – Week 14 – Midweek_

"Alright kids," Lisa Lavender said, settling herself down in the booth with team RWEBY. She straightened her suit jacket and took a drink from her water glass, a soft smile on her lips. "Ah! Nothing like a little cold water on a dry day."

Beside her, a man in a crisp suit carrying an expensive-looking camera slid into the cushioned seating and suddenly our booth at 'The Cat's Meow' was complete.

I was completely and utterly aware of the irony and I made sure to share my mirth with Blake several times since we heard about the name of the restaurant that was to be the site of RWEBY's first major news appearance. She did not share in my amusement. Or Yang's, for that matter. She was, however, just as excited to do the interview as I was. RWEBY was mentioned in weeks past but that was only offhandedly, as a second or a third place team, this was our first _real _exposure. It was our one and only chance to make the _right _first impression upon Vale's citizens.

A glance at my booth-mates told me that, with the exception of Weiss, each and every one of them was nervous. I was too, were I completely honest with myself. Not because we were talking to adults or because the interview itself was nerve-wracking but because I wanted RWEBY to get this right. If we slipped up, if we messed up here and said the wrong thing then that would stay with us. Depending on how severe a slip up, it might even stay with us throughout the entirety of our stay at Beacon.

I let my shoulder bump into Blake's when I reached for my water. I could feel the muscles in her thigh and the tension in her leg – our booth was rather cramped.

"So, team RWEBY," Lavender said, her smile growing wider. "Our new number one first year team. How do you feel about passing up JNPR and the Invincible Girl, Pyrrha Nikos?"

"Uh," Ruby stammered, wide eyed. The mention of JNPR was just about the worst way the interview could have started, given the girl's fixation on helping Jaune Arc and the… _drama_ the boy was currently facing. "Good. We feel good about it."

"Good," Lavender parroted, frowning slightly.

"I'm sorry," Weiss demurred from my other side – we were arranged in true 'RWEBY' fashion, I imagined it must look cute to the readers if we were all in order… else why would the woman have asked us to sit like this? "We're still a little overwhelmed with the success we've been seeing recently in dueling class. Three weeks without a single loss is… well, it's hard to keep our egos in check, you know?"

The Schnee heiress finished her response with a small bout of laughter and I grinned alongside her, not because it was funny, but because she was so damned good at speaking. It was like an art form, listening to her… or torture, sometimes, given she was _still _prone to scold me for my actions against JNPR.

"I can imagine," the reporter agreed, sardonic in her tone as her photographer snapped a photo of us. "What do you have to say about that? Three weeks without a loss truly is an accomplishment! Even JNPR didn't manage that!"

She was looking for something, fishing for something interesting. I could see it in her expression and the way she wrote off Weiss' reply. Was JNPR brought up to get a rise out of us?

"JNPR did well," Ruby said then, frowning. "They just-"

"Just aren't as good as us," I cut across, a smirk on my face now. I didn't think my leader quite grasped the subtle powers at play here. Complimenting JNPR would take attention away from RWEBY – make us look weaker, like our rise to first was just a fluke.

Weiss laughed again and I heard the rustle of movement from Yang on the far end of the booth, it sounded like the girl was cracking her knuckles. I could easily imagine a wide grin on her face.

Lavender laughed behind her hand even as another photo was taken and Ruby turned to give me an unimpressed look. The younger girl winced a moment later though and instead turned her glare on Weiss.

"They couldn't be," I continued because I _did not_ want them to see the interaction going on between RWEBY's 'R' and 'W' right now. "Not while they had to carry Jaune Arc through class after class after class."

"Yes," Lavender nodded. "I noticed he was struggling – the poor boy. I really felt for him! Do you believe he was instrumental in your rise to first?"

She wanted to work the Arc angle then – it made sense; that was where the drama was located. The boy's bully troubles were well known within Beacon and I imagined they were well known to the rest of Vale too. Mom and Phoebe's last letter included a question about whether I was getting bullied because they'd read about one of my classmates struggling with it.

I heard Ruby grunt and I thought one of her knees hit the table. I only just kept my eyes from widening – the girl hadn't listened to me about preparing for this interview. About the questions we'd probably be asked and the things they'd probably want to hear about. She didn't listen to much of anything I said anymore… _damnit!_

"No," I said firmly, only just resisting the urge to rub at my eyes. Keeping RWEBY in first by myself was tiring, more so than I expected; I could only hope Ruby would come around soon. "I feel he was instrumental in JNPR's fall, though. But RWEBY got where we are under our own power."

Yang let out what could only be called a cackle. "Cause we're awesome!"

We needed to get off of the Jaune Arc topic. I didn't want this to be about how he helped JNPR fall, I wanted this to be about how RWEBY rose to first. About how we were here to stay. I also needed to find a way to get Ruby back into the conversation, preferably in a positive fashion – our team couldn't follow JNPR in having a weak leader that blew interviews. Or, more accurately, a childish leader that spent the interviews brooding and glaring.

"We've certainly fought hard to get where we are," Weiss said and I thought her voice sounded just a little more strained than usual. "Thanks in no small part to our professors and the competition our other classmates provided us, of course!"

"I'm sure," the reporter agreed as the camera flashed again. "You've got some impressive peers, though that's not to say you're not impressive too! The Schnee heiress, am I correct?"

"The Schnee heiress," I answered, nodding in Weiss' place. "Alongside the best weapon smith in our year. Hands down."

"Best tactician," Blake muttered.

"Yeah! And Enten here is a genius with computers! Did you know he made QuikPik?!"

Yang was a genius. I never even thought of using that app-

"Did you," Lavender asked, her eyebrows arched as the photographer snapped another shot.

"I did," I verbalized after I nodded. "I've been programming since I was eight. Ruby's been building her scythe for just about as long too."

"A scythe," the reporter asked, turning to my leader. The younger girl's eyes lit up, a startling change from the sullen look she was sporting just a few seconds ago.

"My uncle uses one so I decided _I _was going to use one! This is Crescent Rose," the girl rambled, bringing out her weapon and gently stroking the metal amidst the startled gasps of the reporter and her photographer. The crazy girl actually _expanded _it in the restaurant. "I designed her before I went to Signal and let me tell you – it was _not _easy to get a high caliber rifle working with enough support for this _huge _blade! I barely finished her before I went to Beacon because I only spent two years at Signal which was good but Beacon is soooo much more fun and they have _much, much, much _better workshops and _waaaaay _better materials and- oh! Did you know we're redesigning Enten's shield to have a _cannon _in it?!"

"That's… quite impressive," Lavender stated, wide eyed. "I don't think I've ever seen such enthusiasm in weapon smithing. Together with the Schnee heiress and a world-renowned programmer… I wonder what our last two members have hidden away?"

Blake tensed next to me under the reporter's smile and I doubted that the woman could have chosen a worse way to ask the girl for her secrets.

"Blakie here," Yang started, laughing, "she likes to read certain bo-"

The cat faunus in question elbowed the blonde in the side and locked eyes with our reporter. "Did you know Yang writes poems?"

I couldn't help the smile that come over me – the blonde retaliated by giving the black haired girl a Charlie horse. There was a _thud _from underneath the table and Blake hissed in pain.

"My roommates," I bemoaned, glancing back at Lavender even as Blake jabbed Yang in her side.

"I've got to put up with all _three _of you," Weiss quipped, a smile on her face.

"You seem like a close-knit bunch," the reporter observed; the camera flashed again. "I don't think I've seen a team quite as close as you after only three months together."

Ruby's demeanor took a turn for the worse but thankfully she was the only one still mad at me. Yang lightened up – though she still disagreed with me – after I apologized to Ruby for the guilt trip and neither Blake nor Weiss were really mad at me to begin with. That said, the Schnee heiress, like my blonde partner, disagreed with my methods too.

It was difficult to continue without their support but I knew I had to do it, whether I liked it or not. It didn't matter how much sleep I lost or how much extra time I had to spend coaching CRDL or devising counters for our classmates. I had to do it. Remnant, unlike Earth, was not kind.

"Live together, learn together, laugh together," Blake intoned from my side. There was no tension in her muscles, now. "A true friend is worth more than a thousand acquaintances. Each member of RWEBY has four true friends."

I was struck speechless by the girl's words. It sounded like it might have been from a book but at the same time it very well could have just been the cat faunus herself. I knew her to be articulate when she wanted to be.

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Yang murmured, slinging an arm over Blake's shoulders.

"Wow," Lavender muttered, jotting something down in her Scroll. She looked back up at us shortly thereafter. "It's clear this team is close – one of the closest I've ever interviewed, to be sure. Do you think those relationships helped you take first in your year's rankings?"

"I think so," Ruby said, smiling softly now. "We _do _have our problems… But we all know we can trust each other in a fight. We're all on the same side, after all. All of us. Against the Grimm… it's live or die and I don't think humanity has any time to spare on infighting."

Well if that wasn't a dig at me then I didn't know what it was. It was so subtly done that I couldn't really get mad at her either – I was impressed, actually. I was good to see the girl grow like that.

"Well said," our reporter commented as the photographer took another picture. "And from one so young – were you ever nervous about being two years younger than your classmates?"

"Nope," the girl chirped. "Cause I knew Yang and… and Crescent Rose when I started!"

The blonde in question snorted. "You mean me and Enten, dork."

The younger girl growled and shot me a withering look. There was some shuffling between her and Weiss then and when I glanced at the heiress' face, it was locked into an uncomfortable smile.

"Oh," Lavender said, leaning forward with one of her eyebrows arched. "Am I sensing some conflict within the dream team?"

"No," I said firmly. "I just ate one of Ruby's strawberries this morning…" I shook my head, grinning wryly because that actually happened, just not this morning. "She about bit my head off! I didn't know they were her favorite and apparently, she's still a _little _angry."

The reporter looked to my leader then with an amused smile on her face.

"Yup," Ruby chirped again. "It was on _my _plate and everything and he just _took _it!"

"Don't steal a girl's food," the reporter quipped, looking back at me.

I shrugged. "I know _now_."

The woman laughed and sipped at her water; the camera flashed. She sat back in the booth then and cleared her throat. "Alright," she nodded, glancing down at her Scroll. "Now, what did each of you do after you moved into first place? How did you celebrate?"

"I told my dad," Ruby cheered, standing up slightly in the booth. "And then Uncle Qrow!"

"I wrote home," I volunteered after the younger girl finished. And because people would find out I had a little sister eventually: "Phoebe, my little sister, _loves_ hearing about the girls on team RWEBY."

I refrained from showing her my pictures. Letting people know I had a little sister and letting people know she was a faunus were two entirely different matters. One was a mostly harmless fact that really wasn't a secret at all but the other… that would attract more negative attention than it would positive for my family.

For RWEBY too, actually. My team was an afterthought where my family was concerned but still, if the public – generally ignorant as they were – found out I had a faunus family, nothing good would likely come of it for the team.

"Aww," Lavender intoned. "How old is she?"

"She'd be... seven, now, going on eight." Was she really that old? It felt like just yesterday I was lamenting about carrying a sand-covered five year old on my shoulders as we walked back from the park.

The reporter hummed and, smiling, leaned forward in a conspiratory manner. "Does she have a favorite?"

I laughed. "She doesn't play favorites," I said, glancing at my teammates. "If she did then the other three would be too jealous to get along with the first and team RWEBY would collapse. It'd be anarchy!"

"Hmm, team RWEBY's secret weakness: a seven year-old," Lavender said as she sat back up.

"Little squirt's cute. I'm clearly her favorite," Yang said, a grin on her face as she leaned forward. Because she still had her arm around Blake's shoulders, the cat faunus was forced to imitate her and it looked like the girl was _not _pleased about it.

I remained silent even as Ruby protested her sister's claim. I brought Phoebe up for a reason; hell, I brought my family up for a reason: I wanted the conversation to turn to Weiss' family. The Schnee name was something that the heiress liked to avoid as a conversation topic. It made her uncomfortable and given her negative experiences at home, I understood. But now team RWEBY was first in our year and we had something to bring to the table that we did not have before. Something to attract the eye of sponsors, sponsors like the Schnee patriarch and his friends.

Fame.

Our team was going to be the topic of many conversations in the future and if I had my way, we would _stay _the topic of those conversations throughout the rest of our time at Beacon. It was unlikely we would hold first the _entire _time we attended but I never wanted team RWEBY to be far from the top. To accomplish that, we needed backers. We needed sponsors. We needed support.

Pyrrha Nikos had backers, she had support and she had sponsors. Those factors helped carry her from tournament to tournament, continent to continent, where she won, time and time again. It helped her grow into the undefeated, untouchable fighter that she was. Even with my team in first place, I still expected her to receive attention from the news media simply because she was Pyrrha Nikos.

Team RWEBY needed that. We needed it more than the girls realized because they were almost completely unaware of how we could leverage being in first beyond that of choosing missions. It showed in the conversation where they found out I was – and still am – guiding Winchester in his bullying of Jaune Arc. None of them thought appealing to wealthy supporters was an important aspect of being in first place, even Weiss Schnee couldn't see the potential there.

Maybe it was because they were young still and unaware of how the human mind worked. When I was seventeen I knew the only thing I cared about was what was going on at that moment. The world might as well have ceased to exist outside of my friends, my family and my schoolwork.

But I was not on Earth anymore. I was no longer that person alone. I lived on Remnant now and this world was another beast entirely. A dangerous one, capable of unspeakable slaughter.

And team RWEBY was going to be part of the first line of defense against that beast. This was life or death and every resource I could get my hands on to make certain we survived would be used.

I glanced at Weiss, smiling softly in time with the heiress recounting how she treated herself to sweets when RWEBY took first. She would not like what I was going to do here. She would not like being forced into seeing her family.

She did not understand.

Every resource would be used, I could only hope the girls would understand, given time.

* * *

_Later that night_

_Nora Valkyrie. JNPR. Weapon: giant warhammer. Strong, agile. Lots of Aura. Has reach. Emotional ties to Lie Ren. Favors jump attacks. Weak when in the air. Possible strategy?_

"Enten," Blake said.

I looked up to find the girl standing in RWEBY's shared common area, her hands behind her back and dressed in her nightwear – a sleeping gown-esque getup that revealed much of the girl's legs.

"What's up Blake," I asked from my place on one of our sofas, glancing back at my Scroll. CRDL really didn't have an obvious way to deal with Valkyrie. She was stronger than Winchester, more nimble than Thrush… Maybe, _maybe_, Bronzewing could best her but only on an off day and even then-

"We need to talk," the girl responded, placing herself on the sofa across from mine. The light from the fireplace cast the girl's skin in a soft, red glow.

I frowned. "Can it wait, I'm trying to figure-"

"No."

My frowned deepened and I looked up at the cat faunus, blinking several times to get my eyes to focus. It'd been a long day. "Is something wrong?"

"Yes."

My Scroll was promptly shoved into my pocket and my thoughts started racing. Was it CRDL? I knew they were likely to try and double-cross me eventually but I didn't expect them to move so quickly. I hadn't found time to come up with counter-strategies either – too many other things going on. Of course, it was possible that this was about her secret... Someone could have found out about her faunus nature. Was she being threatened? I made to get up. "Who?"

"You."

I froze, half way out of my seat. "Uhh... Care to repeat that?"

"You."

"Thanks," I muttered, sardonic. "Care to _expand_?"

The girl eyed me for a half second and then glanced at Weiss' closed door. "She's mad."

"Yes," I admitted, tossing a glance at the large, ornate 'W' on the door. "She'll understand once she sees what power her father-"

"She knows. Lived with him for seventeen years."

I sat back down and rubbed at my eyes. It was far, _far_ too late to have this argument. "Fine," I said. "Then she'll see it's worth it once we utilize her father's connections."

The faunus eyed me for another half second. "Cold," she muttered.

"What else can I be? Remnant slaughters anything less than the best of the best."

Blake shook her head. She crossed her legs and folded her hands in her lap. "Knows him better than you. Wary for a reason."

What was this now? I thought the faunus agreed with my methods, or at the very least remained neutral on the matter. Now, it appeared she was turning against me.

Who would be next? I knew Ruby and Weiss were already united against me and my efforts to make this team stronger. To help this team _survive. _Now, Blake was in their camp. Yang was the only one left. Perhaps _she _would be able to see the necessity?

And didn't I prove my point during the argument with my leader? I _knew _I was in the right here. So why didn't they?

"This isn't a game, Blake. We need every advantage we can get if we want to make it through our lives. You saw how dangerous our profession was the night Arc ran away - remember the condition you found me in? How close I was..."

"Dangerous," she agreed, nodding. "Weiss' father wasn't needed."

"There, yes-" I rubbed at my eyes, frustrated. _Every _time they brought up how something I was doing wasn't needed _now_. It wasn't _now _I was concerned about, it was the _future_. "I don't want to talk about this. I already proved my point last week."

I fell silent then and Blake let the lack of noise linger. She was studying me, I could see that in my peripheral. Let her, I had strategies for CRDL to figure out - now that I knew the team wasn't somehow undermining me yet, I was more than willing to continue using the bullies to my - and RWEBY's - advantage.

"You used to call him Jaune."

I looked back up at the cat faunus. "What?"

"Used to call him Jaune. What changed?"

One of my eyebrows arched. Had I? Yes... Yes I had. She was right. "Huh, I never noticed," I muttered, shrugging.

"Enten, what changed," Blake repeated, frowning, when I looked back at my Scroll.

I chewed on my lip, a frown now on my face as well. I thought the cat faunus was being more direct than usual. That was something that only happened when she was mad. "Ahh... Well, the whole 'run away from Beacon' thing was _kind _of irresponsible. Not to mention it nearly got two members of team RWEBY killed."

Never mind the fact that Ruby herself played a part in that as well. Without Arc pulling the vanishing act, we never would have been out there in the first place.

"I think that qualifies for the demotion to 'Arc'," I finished.

"Pyrrha," Blake prompted.

"That... was probably around when she decked me across the jaw."

"Cardin."

"When," I frowned. "When I... Oh. When I started using him against Arc." Well that was embarrassing. The boy never even did anything to me. Truth be told, I thought... yeah, I thought calling him Winchester made it easier to manipulate him. Less of an attachment - positive or negative - allowed me to remain aloof.

That revelation didn't sit too well with me. Still, without CRDL then JNPR would begin to threaten RWEBY's position as the strongest first year team. That couldn't happen. Manipulating Winchester and his teammates was a necessary evil, regardless of their age or maturity.

"Ruby: is Rose next?"

"No," I denied emphatically, startled. Ruby was my leader and regardless of our differences or disagreements, she would remain just that. My leader. My friend. That bond and the bonds I shared with my other teammates were the reasons I was going through all this trouble to keep RWEBY in first.

"Weiss?"

"Of course not," I stated, frowning now. "Blake, just what are you trying to say? That I'd manipulate RWEBY?"

"Weiss' father."

That hit me like a slap to the face. "I- I'm not!" I cut myself off, swallowing and then forcing myself to take in a deep breath. I needed to collect my thoughts. The cat faunus was doing a remarkable job at keeping me unbalanced, her odd way of speaking usually did.

"I am not manipulating Weiss into meeting with her father."

"Forcing."

I scowled. "Call it what you will-"

"Schnee?"

"_Damnit Blake! _I did that for our team. I did _all _of that for our _team! _Everything I do is for our team! For RWEBY!"

A door opened behind Blake - Yang's door - and the blonde herself walked out. Her face was set in a neutral expression.

"For someone who says he acts in our team's best interests, you're doing a better job at tearing us apart than Cardin is with JNPR."

"That's not even close to true," I muttered, scowling.

"Really," Yang asked. "Then why is it that Ruby and Weiss aren't speaking to you? Everyone on JNPR is still speaking to Jaune, even though you went and got Cardin to make the guy's life a living hell."

"They don't see the- I _told _you why I was doing this a few days ago. I proved my point."

"And I disagree with you. I disagreed then and I disagree now."

"Too far," Blake muttered.

I threw my hands up in the air, rising out of my seat as I did so. "So what? You might disagree but you still can't prove we'll get by on good luck and a happy-go-lucky attitude!"

"Well you can't prove we'll survive as a broken team," Yang retorted.

"We don't _need _to be broken. We have no reason to-"

"We have plenty of reasons! You're responsible for _all _of them!"

I shook my head and rubbed at my eyes.

"All of them, Enten," Yang repeated.

"This is necessary," I said. "I've told you that too many times. Our team needs every advantage we can get out there because once we're out on a mission, there isn't a second chance. We only get _one. _One shot. That's it."

The blonde put her head into her hands and sat down, next to her, Blake eyed me silently, a downward curve present on the edge of her lips.

"We disagree," the cat faunus intoned.

"I know you disagree," I muttered, exasperated. "I know you disagree. I _know_. But you haven't brought me any logical arguments that prove this isn't-"

"It's not all about facts Enten!" Yang was on her feet again, her arms crossed and a scowl on her face. "You don't always have a reason or a conclusion or..." She huffed and shook her head. "Sometimes you just do things because they're _right_!"

"Right doesn't live," I argued even as I heard Ruby's door open behind me. As if my partners weren't enough... this was getting ridiculous. "Right might make you sleep easier at night but I'm aiming to keep you _alive _so you can still do that."

"I know you think you're right," my leader said from behind me, her calm voice a startling contrast to the heated nature of the argument. It drew my attention to her as she placed herself in 'her' armchair. It was where she did her brainstorming and thinking on strategies for RWEBY. "And maybe you are... But you can't keep doing this."

I opened my mouth to refute her but she cut across me before I could get a word out.

"Let me speak. You said your part a few days ago - let me say mine." She waited a few seconds and, when it was obvious I was listening, she continued: "You're different now, Enten. You remind me more of the you before 'The Great Cry'."

Yang made a disgruntled sound and Ruby's lips curled into a small, melancholic smile.

"You're more focused and driven now and that's good! But you're also more unforgiving. You're more ruthless and I think you're more stressed out too... You're doing too much and even though your intentions are good, it's bad."

She swallowed. "Uh, the results, I mean. The results are bad. You aren't as happy. Our team is fighting _a lot _and Jaune is getting bullied and _nothing _is good anymore."

A frown spread across my face because the girl was right, at least in part. I was indeed more stressed out and it was beginning to get to me. I knew going into this that keeping first was going to be a full time job; what I failed to realize was how much that would affect my teammates. What I failed to realize was how much _more _stressful it was knowing they disagreed with me and how much more difficult this was without their support.

"I'll tone it down," I offered slowly, after a few seconds of silence. It was becoming increasingly obvious to me that a compromise was necessary here, especially given the vehemence in the disapproval Yang and Blake expressed. Add to that Ruby and Weiss' opinions and suddenly I had the entirety of my team against me.

I… didn't like that. If I was to survive then I wanted it to be _with _my team. And if my efforts to achieve just that caused said teammates to abandon me then… well, then the only sensible thing left for me to do was compromise with them.

"I'll ease up on the subterfuge," I continued, my voice still even. "I'll start relaxing more too, but I can't stop completely. You know that."

"No I don't," the girl said, shaking her head. "I don't know that. I know you _think _all of this is necessary and I know we'll get stronger because of what you're doing. I _know_. But I don't want to get stronger if it means losing all of our friends. I don't want to survive if it means team RWEBY survives _alone_. I want everyone to live. I want everyone to be happy."

"I'd like that too," I said solemnly. Naive as the thought was, it was appealing. But this wasn't Earth. This was Remnant and Remnant possessed the Grimm. "I just don't think it's possible. You know how cruel this world can be. One slip up..."

"I know," Ruby muttered, her jaw tense as a frown developed on her lips. "I know... But I want Enten back. I don't... this isn't you. I want- I always thought of you as an older brother, when I was younger. And even now! You always used to do little things that showed you cared about me; you walked between me and the sparring arenas at Signal. You brought me strawberries whenever you found me in the workshop. You even carried me back to my bed that one time I fell asleep! You could have gotten in so much trouble... Between you and Yang, I thought I was the luckiest kid in Vale."

She sniffed and it was only because Yang made a noise in the back of her throat that I even remembered she and Blake were present.

"But you don't do that stuff anymore. You just want to work and plan. You don't even laugh anymore! And I know because I watch and _you _taught me to do that! The last time you laughed around me was during our interview – and that was fake! All of that was fake and it was horrible and you were being so mean! I want us to be a team and I want us to laugh together for _real_. Not…" She gestured to the room around her. "Not like this. This… this isn't our team. Not anymore."

The girl stopped and struggled to take in a breath; she gave it up as fruitless when only shakey inhales greeted her efforts. "You don't- You... I just want us to get along!"

I swallowed because my throat was suddenly dry. Ruby was crying now and a sinking feeling was developing in my gut. How was it that this girl could shake my resolve so thoroughly? Was I really such a cancer to this team? I knew what I was doing was necessary. I knew RWEBY needed every advantage we could get... but did the end justify the means?

"I want Enten back!"

Her piece said, the girl fell silent, tears streaming down her cheeks as she held eye contact with me. It was hard to look her in the eye - much harder than it was to stare Pyrrha down. Again, I found myself wondering if this was all truly worth it. The price tag on RWEBY's success was larger than I ever realized and I found myself unwilling to believe the end justified the means if my team was the sacrifice.

For what joy was there in surviving alone? Some might find that acceptable, the weak-willed and the cowardly who only looked after themselves, perhaps. The dull of mind that only possessed the foresight to protect their own hides.

But I was none of those. I was better than that. I _knew _that.

I had the spine to put myself on the line for these girls. I had the intellect to protect all of them.

But perhaps I was going about it the wrong way?

"She's right, you know," Weiss said and I jumped, as focused as I was on Ruby, I never realized she joined us. With her now present in RWEBY's clubhouse, the team was complete. The girl cleared her throat and crossed her legs, her back straight and shoulders level; she was the picture of dignity regardless of the fact that she was wearing a plain nightdress.

"The boy I met at the beginning of the semester _never _would have publicly forced me into planning a trip home. Not the boy that saw through my... not the boy that recognized my fear and helped me deal with it. Not the boy that _knew _I was at odds with my family and helped me forget about them. Not that boy. That boy was Enten... you... I don't know you."

I slumped into my sofa and rubbed at my eyes. Conflicting thoughts were rampaging about my mind. On the one hand, I absolutely would not pursue this subterfuge that was tearing this team apart... on the other hand, I absolutely _must _pursue the very same course of action.

Our survival depended upon it. Our survival depended upon gaining every scrap of strength we could.

It all came down to my willpower. Which course of action did I find more acceptable? To alienate myself from my team and continue tearing apart these bonds... or go blindly into our lives as hunters and huntresses, knowingly and willingly forsaking potentially life-saving advantages.

A hard choice, certainly... but I knew my answer.

I could not sacrifice this team. I could not lose my bonds. My friends.

But it was true too that I would not rely on blind luck to survive.

Thus, I decided that I would find another way. A more acceptable path forward for the team.

Because, at the end of the day, we were going to survive this world. We were going to _live_.

I could accept no less.

"It's like you're a completely different person now," Ruby muttered, dejected when I remained silent. I was acutely aware of both Blake and Yang turning to stare me down then.

A sigh escaped me. If only my leader knew how close to the truth she was... maybe all of this would be easier to explain.

"I-" Movement from Blake caught me eye and I glanced at her just in time to find the girl finish removing her bow. She was looking directly at me, even now as she held the hair ornament in her hand, even as Weiss released a horrified gasp and my eyes widened in surprise.

"No secrets," she muttered. "You taught me that. Teammates can trust each other with anything. We can't trust each other anymore."

"What, Blake!" The Schnee heiress was staring, aghast, at our black haired teammate. The cat faunus ignored her in favor of staring at me.

In the shocked silence that pervaded the room, Weiss' breathing growing louder was easy to hear. I glanced her way only to find the girl intently focused on Blake's ears. Her hands were white knuckled and her eyes were darting between the faunus and her bedroom-

"Weiss," Ruby asked slowly. Her eyes, still red-rimmed, widened a second later. "Weiss?! Are you okay?!"

The girl jerkily shook her head and tried to say something but her words failed her. Her eyes bulged and she started to clutch at her throat-

I crossed the room in two strides. One of my hands took one of hers and my other was placed on her cheek, forcing her focus from Blake's ears to my eyes. I needed to get her mind off of the cat faunus, and _quickly_.

"Weiss," I started, speaking as calmly as I could. "Weiss, I need you to breathe, alright? You'll be alright, you just need to breathe - with me now. In... Out..."

She wasn't listening, only shaking her head mutely. This extreme of a reaction came as a surprise to me, though it could probably be accounted to the fact that the faunus in question was on Weiss' team. The faunus in question lived with her, slept in the same room as her, took her meals with the heiress...

Knowing your greatest fear lurked so close to you all along couldn't be an easy revelation to handle. At least she had her team to act as a safeguard for her against the other faunus at Beacon, but to have one _on _her team...

"Weiss," I repeated, ridding my mind of the thoughts. Helping the heiress calm down was far more important than my speculations. "In, then out. I'll do it with you. In..."

She started gasping but she let no air escape her. It was a reassuring sign. A positive start.

"Good. You remember how you told me about the time you and Winter hid from your family's servants in the pool? Breathe out now... all at once... All of it... good. You said you tricked one of them into getting you towels - breathe in, good... deeper - and you ended up getting out of trouble entirely. Out, now... Phoebe tried that with mom once, you know. She tried to recruit me into helping her and everything. Breathe in. Turns out she _hates _apples. But only the green ones! The green ones are _evil! _Normally she and green apples didn't have to see each other so there was no problem. But mom made apple pie with _green _apples that day. Out. Breathe out... good."

The girl's color was returning, she had so little that I really had to focus to see it... but it was there.

"Anyway, Phoebe _loves _apple pie. Almost as much as she hates green apples. But this was _green _apple pie, that was bad apple pie - keep breathing now, you've got it. So what could a three year old do when presented with a situation like that?"

I paused and slowly released the girl's hand. She was breathing normally now and her eyes were riveted on me.

"What else but feed the pie - the _entire _pie, freshly baked - to the neighbor's dogs? Mom would have to make a new one, of course, with _red _apples this time."

Weiss' hand darted forward before I withdrew mine completely, her breathing still labored but steady now. She was still staring at me, wide eyed. I made to ask her what was wrong but, before I could so much as blink, she tugged on my hand and planted a kiss on my cheek.

My eyes widened even as the girl's lips - remarkably cool, likely because of the cold air the girl greedily gasped for only seconds earlier - withdrew. She swallowed once, looking almost uncertain before she schooled her face into a neutral front. She allowed the stunned silence to linger for a moment longer and I found that I was not immune to its presence, given I was just as speechless as my teammates.

"That's the Enten I remember," she muttered finally.

Ruby cleared her throat. "So... um... Aww!"

Weiss shot the younger girl a displeased look that I'd seen on her face countless times before: the chin tilted slightly downward, eyebrows in a straight line, her lips thinned, it could have been patented by now.

"Please," the girl muttered, apparently immune to Ruby's wide, cheeky grin. It looked out of place on her tear-stained face. Given the range of emotions my leader was capable of transitioning between though... "You-"

A crack appeared in the heiress' facade. I felt a small smile appear on my face when Weiss faltered and looked away, a smile of her own on her lips.

"So," Yang started slowly. "Blake is a faunus, by the way. And-"

"Hold on," the Schnee heiress said, her smile fading at the reminder. She held up a hand and looked to Blake. "You don't get to just reveal it and move on. We'll be speaking later about this; but for now," she continued, looking over at me, "you."

"Me," I sighed. Apparently it was too much to hope they would forget about the verbal smack down that was taking place before Blake's big reveal derailed the conversation.

"Yes, you," Weiss nodded, clearing her throat and gathering herself. Any hint of fear or desperation was purged from her face with the deep exhalation she forced through her lips. Still, she was not hiding her emotions from us; I could see... something in the tilt of her eyebrows and the angle of her chin. I thought it was a combination of grim determination and soft affection.

It was a look I'd never seen on her face before.

"Why did Blake..." she hesitated, swallowing. "Why did she reveal she was a faunus? It had something to do with you."

Suddenly the dire nature of the situation at hand forced itself back upon my mind. The emotions it spurred, the secrets that were threatened, everything was forgotten in the wake of Weiss' panic attack. But now, it all came rushing back.

I had a lot to answer for. I had bonds to repair. Trust to regain. And, perhaps most importantly, a secret to tell.

"She..." I cleared my throat, hesitating. Something Ruby said was bothering me. Something that Weiss backed up: the fact that they saw me as a different person without knowing of my former life. If what they said possessed had any merit, then it suggested I had a divide in my personalities... Bipolarity?

A shudder forced its way down my spine. I thought I was fairly rational, not prone to sudden or unexpected shifts in emotion... No, not bipolar. I definitely wasn't bipolar. What Ruby was describing sounded more like two different-

_'Oh shit.'_

Like two separate personalities.

A frown grew on my face. That was... That was insane. But... no! I was Enten. I was _just _Enten. Two lives, sure but... but it was just _one _life now. With two sets of memories. Not two selves, else...

Both of my lives were a part of me now. I didn't have two personalities. Both lives regarded mom and Phoebe with great love and affection. Both cared deeply for team RWEBY. I never made any effort to consciously separate Earth-me from Remnant-me, I let them bleed together. They were the same!

_'But one was willing to sacrifice your team to grow stronger.'_

A chill worked its way down my spine. I was _not _willing to sacrifice my team. I would _never _sacrifice my team. But still… I could not deny that my actions had hurt them. That our bonds suffered-

_Weiss, a devastated look on her face that she quickly hid lest the reporter see it._

_Ruby, heart-brokenly staring after Jaune and Pyrrha as they retreated._

_Yang, a frowning as she went to comfort her sister._

_Blake, shaking her head-_

Yes, feelings had certainly been hurt. More extensively than I realized, honestly.

Part of me was colder. He- _I_ was more cynical and more manipulative, more _ruthless _than the other half. That part was kinder, he-

_'I, this is me! Don't distance yourself from this. Don't run from it. __**Accept **__it.'_

_I_ was focused on my bonds, on _my_ attachments to _my_ family and to _my_ team. _Mine!_ I was focused on protecting those people at all costs. Because they were _mine. _Not his or ours or theirs... _mine._

I released a shaky breath into the silence of the clubhouse. My teammates' stares were not lost on me; I hadn't spoken in quite some time but it was a frightening self-diagnosis that I just made. Identifying and categorizing myself as though I were two different people was trying enough to threaten my sanity. Who was I, if not Enten? But it could never be that simple, could it?

No... No, because only _half_ of me grew up in Remnant. A world where I spent nearly my entire life in a fear-ridden state of paranoia. The Grimm. The criminal underworld. The anti-faunus sect of Vale. Everyone and everything was a threat. That half of me had numerous enemies and, given I grew up with an adult's intellect, recognized that in a way other child probably did not. He valued himself first and foremost, focused upon his own wellbeing as he was. He was ruthless in his quest to _survive_.

_'__**I **__am ruthless.'_

The other half of me grew up on Earth. Not coddled, but certainly not in danger of dying every single day. Not in the way the Remnant-me was and still is. The Earth-me was softer. He was an adult, used to dealing with the responsibilities that came with that title. Of those responsibilities, though, surviving life-threatening incidents was not one of them. He was a dreamer. He cared for his friends and family. He put them before himself always. An idealist.

_'__**I**__ am an idealist.'_

Separately, the two were unfinished products. Rough and coarse around the edges; neither could survive Remnant, one because he would make enemies of everyone around him – even his own _team -_ and the other because he did not have the will to get his hands dirty.

But together? A mixture of the two was necessary and, luckily enough, it was what I ended up with: my unshakeable will to see myself survive remained intact but it was expanded to cover those precious to me as well.

Fewer enemies, with all the determination.

It was an acceptable middle-ground with only one problem that remained to be solved.

My intellect.

It all came down to my intelligence, I knew that now. My thrice damned adult mind inside a child's body. It was because of that intellect that I acted the way I did. The way I do. It was how I was able to recognize the danger I was constantly in on Remnant. Without that intellect I could have easily ended up like one of my teammates - willing to leave my survival up to chance. But I knew better. I knew the good guys didn't always win. I knew this wasn't a fairy tale. I knew my team would have to dirty our hands to survive in this world, even if they weren't ready to accept that.

A heavy sigh escaped me. That was it then. I had a course of action now. A plan: I would compromise with my team, I would involve them in every single thing I did to make us stronger and I would also tell them about me. Both lives.

Everything on the table. As Blake said: no more secrets.

I nodded, resolute and calmer in the wake of my alter ego dilemma now that I had a course of action to focus upon. My hand retrieved my Scroll from my pocket even as Yang made an excited sound in the back of her throat. They deserved to know. They deserved to know _both _me's.

"You guys-"

I grunted and tossed a look at the blonde, prompting the girl to frown. She sighed and brought out her own Scroll, manipulating it into showing her the drawing application present on all such devices.

"What are you guys doing," Ruby asked slowly, her brow furrowed and a slight downturn to her lips. She was eying me, clearly confused. Weiss, contrarily, was only watching me intently. Expectantly.

"There's a reason you don't recognize me, Ruby, Weiss," I said and only just resisted the urge to rub at my eyes. The realization that I possessed two personalities was still fresh. I might have a working theory – the Earth-me was soft and the Remnant-me was hard - but I wasn't sure how to feel about it; were I honest with myself, the only thing I could think to do was panic.

Two personalities? Was I insane? Was I fit to be a hunter? Should I even be a hunter? I was a liability wasn't I? What if there were more undiscovered quirks to my mental fortitude? What if I discovered them on a mission? What if-

I stopped myself there. Too many 'what ifs' and far too little information. I needed to think about this more, later. Identify the differences in my... _selves_ and figure out how to control them. If they even needed to be controlled… ugh.

A scoff from Weiss - another indication she was not hiding her emotions behind her public face, else the girl would have _never _made such a crude sound - drew me from my thoughts and I glanced over at her to find the heiress studying Yang's Scroll.

'This is bigger than Blake's secret!'

"I find it hard to-"

I cleared my throat, pointedly staring down the white haired girl. "Scrolls only," I grunted, indicating the blonde's device and the drawing application on it.

"I hardly think-"

"Scrolls. Only."

"Hey, hey-hey-hey!" Yang was waving her Scroll around now, a new message presented to the team at large.

'What do you call an Enten with two lives?'

Once she was satisfied that the entire group had seen her message, the blonde drew something else on her Scroll, cackling under her breath.

'En-two!'

"Oh, you're loving yourself right now aren't you," I asked, sardonic, even as the blonde burst into a fit of laughter and Blake failed to contain her smile. "How long have you been waiting to use that one?"

"Scrolls-" The blonde broke off into another fit of giggles. It took her several seconds but eventually she cleared her throat and took in a deep breath to calm down. "Scrolls only, En-_two_," she snarked.

"Okay," I muttered, disbelief in my tone. I was not sure when the blonde decided to stop being displeased with me - maybe she just forgot about the conversation that brought us to this point... I didn't know. I certainly wasn't going to complain. I thought it most likely, though, that she was just aware of the fact that I was going to clean up my act, even though the _how _of the matter was still unknown to her. She was far more perceptive than most gave her credit for and I know I wasn't trying to hide my emotions...

I grunted and shook my head, clearing my mind for the conversation to come. My attention returned to my Scroll.

'I am from another dimension.'

It was the same message I showed Blake and Yang all those weeks ago. Back then it signified a trust deeper than I expected I'd ever feel in Remnant. This time, it meant that very same thing and yet, so much more.

Because this time, I was aware of just what that phrase meant.

There was a divide inside of me. A fissure between my Earth self and my Remnant self. It made sense, in retrospect. Give a person a life on two different planets and he was bound to be influenced by his environment. It was almost a forgone conclusion then that, depending on how extreme the differences in the environments were, he would develop some kind of split personality disorder.

_'Now or never.'_

I released a shaky breath and displayed my Scroll to Weiss and Ruby.

Silence. Complete and utter silence met my action and both girls were sporting incredulous looks on their faces. They glanced between my Scroll and my face several times while I waited, silent alongside Blake and Yang, for a response.

"I-"

"Scrolls only," I said quickly.

"Seriously?"

"Yes," I said, nodded to reinforce my point. Weiss scowled but obeyed, retrieving the object from the coffee table in front of her.

'Are you insane?'

"I said the same thing," Yang inserted quickly even as her younger sister nodded and looked to me for an answer. Apparently the younger girl agreed with Weiss. Fair enough - I would probably react the same way if someone told me they weren't from Remnant.

Instead of verbalizing or writing another message, I navigated to my notes. The same notes I showed Blake and Yang. The encrypted notes, timestamped and retroactively dated as early as when I was three years of age.

A sigh escaped me when I saw the messy scrawl of my younger self - this page of my notes detailed what I could remember of recursive functions. Simple in theory, a little more difficult to implement in practice. Infinite loops were very easy to create with them, miss a single logical check and the stack would overflow. The entire program would freeze.

Wordlessly, I handed the Scroll to Weiss as Ruby leaned in to read over the girl's shoulder. I made eye contact with both of them and indicated the date on the top of the document.

Immediately, Weiss' eyes widened and she shoved my Scroll into Ruby's hands. My leader made a startled sound and nearly dropped the device; the Schnee heiress ignored the commotion in favor of scrawling out a message on her own Scroll:

'Is this accurate?'

I nodded and watched as the white haired girl deflated, frowning. Quickly, she wrote another message:

'How?'

A frown stretched across my own face then because it occurred to me that I never mentioned the finer details of being from another dimension. For all they knew, I could have just appeared here fully grown.

I reached out mutely, indicating Weiss' Scroll because Ruby was still flicking through my own. She looked interested in what she was reading but I didn't think the full weight of the situation at hand had hit her yet.

'Remnant was not my first life.'

Weiss gasped and her hand flew up to cover her mouth reflexively. She took my Scroll back from Ruby – drawing an annoyed grunt from the girl - and started frantically paging through my notes.

I shifted and showed my message on Weiss' Scroll to her.

The girl's eyebrows rose immediately and her mouth worked mutely for several seconds. She looked at my Scroll and back at me then, her brow now furrowed.

"Wait... you mean?"

I nodded.

"Oh," the girl said. _"Oh..."_

She sat back in her chair just as Weiss reached the end of my notes located in that folder. She kept trying to manipulate the Scroll into showing her another page regardless. Her movements were rather jerky now.

I gently took my Scroll from her and placed hers back on the coffee table. The Schnee heiress slumped in her chair then and started staring at me, like her energy left her when my Scroll was taken away.

"You don't recognize me," I started slowly, turning to face all four of them. "You don't recognize me, because of _this_."

I indicated my notes.

"Can I see more," Yang asked suddenly, staring at my Scroll. When I looked at her in askance, she only shrugged. "It's interesting."

I complied and pulled up my notes on the mobile applications from Earth that I could remember. Maybe she would find it interesting to read about the origins of QuikPik.

"Now," I said, once Yang was sufficiently entertained. "I... discovered something troubling, today. Just now, actually, and I-"

I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry. This was far more terrifying than discovering the presence in my head was Aura. This was worse than watching Grimm kill three of my parents. This was something inherently _me_. An issue I couldn't face down because _I _was the issue.

"I... think... I might have developed _two _personalities," I said. Immediately, expressions ranging from surprised to interested appeared on the girls' faces. They remained silent, however, so I continued: "A, uh... alter-ego? I guess? I don't know… I just know that…"

Frustrated, I stopped speaking. I needed to be careful with how I worded this. It was too complicated to explain by Scroll message but I didn't want any potential eavesdroppers to figure out I was from another dimension.

"There's that one," I said, gesturing at my Scroll. I then gestured to myself. "And then, there's this one… You guys know that one, the first one. This one… I grew up, ah, _differently_ than most kids."

Startled silence still stretched out between us and a frown appeared on my face. They looked confused - maybe a practical example would better explain what I was trying to get across to them. Just how _fucked _in the head I was realizing my second life made me.

An idle thought that _anyone _who experienced two lives would go through this crossed my mind. They might be the same person in the beginning of the second life, but the new environment would invariably change them. If that new environment was an extreme change - like Remnant vs Earth - then maybe... no, someone like me would definitely be the result.

You don't just stay the same person when your life encounters such a large upheaval.

"Remember a time when you played as a kid," I started, solemn-faced as I focused my thoughts again. "In a forest, a playground, a backyard, _anywhere_. Just remember a time you played when you were a kid.

"Now, try to remember how you felt. Your emotions, your feelings, your thoughts. All of that."

I paused and allowed a silence to grow in the room. Recalling childhood memories was never easy and they probably needed time to gather their thoughts and recollections. All of them were focused on their thoughts, it looked like they were each taking this seriously. That was good. Because if they were to understand why I did what I did, then I needed to make them see what I only realized ten minutes prior.

"Now forget all of that," I said, frowning. They all looked at me, their expressions ranging from confused to curious.

"Instead, think about escape points. How would you run if the Grimm were to attack? Think about fitting in. How much should you know and how should you act to keep from looking suspicious? Is the attendant looking at you because you're acting strangely? How can you get her attention off of you? Think..." I swallowed because _this _was not easy for me to say, but it was something I regularly considered - though subconsciously - as a child. "Think about keeping the other children between you and the windows and the doors."

The paranoia I felt before I could fight… The _fear_. I still remembered it clearly. It was the driving force behind my desire to become stronger as a child. Even now, it influenced me. It, alongside the will to protect my loved ones, pushed me to gain strength.

Ruby made an uncomfortable noise and when I looked at her I found a horrified expression on her face. Yang wasn't far behind her sister while Blake and Weiss maintained a neutral front.

"That was my life," I muttered. "When I was four I saw my parents die. At twelve I watched my father bleed out. And because of _this_," I continued, pointing at my Scroll, "I was _aware _of the danger my entire life.

"I am nice. I want to make the world a better place. I am an idealist, a dreamer. Just like you, Ruby," I said, indicating my Scroll. I then gestured to the room at large. "But then, I am also ruthless. I _will_ survive at any and all cost... The only thing I have to ground me are these bonds. These bonds we share. The bonds I have with my family. They're more important to me than _everything _else..."

I swallowed. The girls were silent, their attention riveted on me.

"So, what's the result?" I continued quietly, lifting my chin to meet their stares. This… I could be proud of this. "A mixture of both, as it turns out. _We _will survive. _We _will live at any and all cost. _We _will beat back Remnant… Not just me. It's not just about myself anymore…

"I'll not stop scheming and I'll not stop plotting," I muttered, continuing before any of them could get a word in edgewise. "But I will _ask._"

That induced a shocked silence over my team. Ruby's brow was furrowed and her lips were half-way into forming a full on scowl. Weiss had her eyebrows arched with what I thought was a speculative glint in her eye. Blake remained largely neutral and Yang was chewing on her lip, a hum emanating from her throat even as she looked to her younger sister.

"I will tell you what I'm doing," I expanded after the silence stretched on for several seconds. "I'll involve you in my schemes because I don't want to keep tearing this team apart but _please _understand that I cannot just stop. I can't accept-"

"And if we disagree with you?" Ruby asked softly, quietly. "What then?"

"Then we find another way forward."

"And Cardin?" The girl pressed.

"You've made it abundantly-" I stopped myself, recognizing the resentment in my tone for what it was. That was unacceptable. A compromise required both sides to give a little, harboring those negative feelings would only allow them to fester and undermine the entire gesture.

"We will find another way to keep ourselves in first," I said instead, feeling more relief than I thought possible when a small smile bloomed on Ruby's face.

"So you'll get him to stop bullying Jaune?"

'_Always living in the moment. Always putting others first,' _I thought, a fond smile on my face as I nodded, silent.

Ruby immediately got to her feet and threw her arms around me; she was followed soon after by her sister.

My smile grew, pulling the edges of my lips upward even as a weight fled from my shoulders. The muscles relaxed and my mind stopped racing.

A compromise. One that I could learn to live with. One that Ruby and Yang found acceptable. One that Weiss and Blake found acceptable too, if their smiles were any indicator.

"I've got a few problems to solve," I said withdrawing from the embrace. Ruby frowned but I preempted her: "I hear Jaune has a little bully problem. And wouldn't you know it… I just happened to find his lost application a few hours ago. It looks like it's missing some information, though… care to help me finish correcting it for him?"

A wide grin bloomed on Ruby's face, prompting a matching one – though smaller – to appear on mine. "I like that idea," she said softly. "Just, don't do it again, okay?"

"You'll be the first to hear about it – _before _anything happens," I responded, nodding.

"Okaaaaay team RWEBY! We've got a mission," the girl cheered, stepping away from me and throwing her arms out. "Get Jaune's application fi- uh, find Jaune so we can..."

"Help him finish the _lost _application," I suggested.

"Yeah," Ruby chirped. "That. So let's get to it!"

"Not dressed," Blake pointed out.

"Uhh," the younger girl stammered, confirming that she too was in her night clothes with a glance down at herself. "Okaaaaaaay team RWEBY! We've got a mission: get dressed, _then_ find Jaune!"

A laugh escaped me even as they returned to their rooms. I was left alone in the common area, still in my jeans and a plain white t-shirt – my super-boring hunter clothes, Ruby called them – so I went about downloading an empty application from Beacon's public server. It shouldn't be too hard to duplicate the form for Jaune, given all the research I did on his team and JYDE over the last few weeks.

And then… then I could figure out how I was going to apologize to Weiss.

* * *

**A/N:** Wow. I thought last chapter was hard… this one was easily ten times as difficult to write. I'm still not entirely happy with it, truth be told, but I could sit here for weeks and tweek it and probably still not be completely pleased with how it turned out so… here it is! Sometimes you just have to call it quits and move on to the next one!

(06/21/2016) Revised. I've changed around this chapter to – hopefully – describe the changes in Enten's mindset more accurately. I had a different Enten in mind when I wrote this chapter way back when and I think it doesn't accurately reflect him moving forward anymore.

Due to the quantity of reviews I've been receiving recently I've decided to try and shorten down my A/N by only answering the ones with more direct questions/thoughts. I still appreciate every review I get and you guys are _awesome _for forcing me to find ways to shorten my responses. Thank you to each and every one of you!

**Jackpotdante**: I'm glad you decided to give it one last shot! I know Enten is… shall we say, fanatic in his effort to survive – hopefully this one gave you a little insight into what makes him tick!

**Drake D Zero**: I wouldn't quite call the sabotage humane. Humane would be getting Jaune expelled before he became a danger to himself or his team. The sabotage is a little too personally driven to be neutral. Thanks for the review!

**Anon**: Gotta watch them spies. They love your turrets.

**Shotgun** **Steve**: Lots of risks in Enten's strategy. He may have abandoned it now… but that doesn't erase what he's already done.

**BionicKid**: Still think you're the glorious one.

**Darkkon27**: I got 99 reviews but a flame ain't one (yet). Let's go find some wood to knock on…

**Guest**: I appreciate your thoughts. The (potential) fallout probably won't come up for a few chapters as far as the other teams are concerned. Reckless as he was, Enten is still smart enough to cover his own tracks. But yeah, no one is perfect and there are a lot of loose ends…

**Uub**: No sir, _you _are awesome for writing this review. Thank _you _very much! (Nice point on the healthy competition promoting growth, by the way. That was something I overlooked)

**M.K.M**.: The path to hell is paved with good intentions. I like realism in my stories, I realize that isn't for everyone but I'm glad you enjoy it!

**TheMAO17**: Glad you enjoyed it. I had to search real deep to find something scathing for Ruby to say and, given her innocent nature, I thought the raw truth of 'I don't like you.' worked best.

Thank you to all my reviewers, my favoriters and my followers. You guys make writing so much more rewarding!

Till next time.

-Phailen


	19. Chapter 19

The room smelled overpoweringly of antiseptics laced with an undercurrent of sweat and fatigue. The low ceiling - always a jarring transition from Beacon's grand, magnificent halls - only made the room more suffocating. The lights, bright and glaring, served what seemed to be their sole purpose: making the room increasingly unbearable. The dueling hall's locker room – it wasn't _exactly _filled with creature comforts.

_Clang. _"Three-hundred and eighty-eight..."

Lockers, small and dark, lined the outside edge of the room. Upon each of them was a plaque and engraved upon each of those plaques was one student's name. They were our weapon storage units and, personally, I found them far too confining. Far too small…

_Clang. _"Three-hundred and eighty-nine..."

Then again, I had a habit of making weapons that had no business being called small. Aegis was not tiny by any means and the new iteration of the shield was even larger. Its arm-length girth was heavier too, made of tougher stuff and able to block just about anything… Theoretically, anyway.

_Clang. _"Three-hundred and eig- ninety!"

The shield encased my right arm completely, from my shoulder to my fingertips, and it was still unpainted, still unnamed too… I wanted to finish it before I devoted any time to aesthetic details like that. Ruby and I only just finished the rail, the one that would allow the shield to slide backward when it fired its payload; making it pretty could come after it functioned… Especially because I was still thrown from my feet when I tried to fire the thing. The landing was nowhere near as hard, but it still disoriented me and that was an unacceptable trade-off.

_Clang. _"Three-hundred and ninety-one..."

Ruby and I concluded, therefore, that it was probably going to be necessary to get the rest of team RWEBY involved in the firing process. If I alone could not counter the force the shield generated when firing its payload, perhaps five of us could?_ ..._At any rate, the shield was not finished and I would not devote any time to extraneous details until it was.

_Clang. _"Three-hundred and ninety-two..."

Of course, given my relationship with my teammates, getting them involved would be easier said then done. My recent efforts to keep RWEBY at the top of the first year class strained the very bonds I sought to protect. Weiss would only speak to me when necessary and I was fairly certain that Blake was still annoyed with me too – the cat faunus didn't like to be drawn into confrontation and I went and forced her hand.

_Clang. _"Three-hundred and ninety-three..."

What surprised me most was Ruby's reaction: the girl bore absolutely no grudge against me after I apologized to Jaune and forged a realistic application for him. The fact that I took it a step further and showed him how to properly use a kite shield only made Ruby happier… In hindsight, I probably should have expected her forgiveness, given the younger girl's astonishing ability to see the best in people.

Naivety or compassion… Once upon a time I would have called her naive, but now… now that her ability to accept people so thoroughly was directed at me?

I wasn't so sure.

_Clang. _"Three-hundred and ninety-thr… erm, three?" Weiss grumbled under her breath.

Where Ruby was forgiving, JNPR was spiteful. I understood – they had a right to bear a grudge against me, just as Weiss and Blake did. I cared about what the girls thought of me and already I had plans to repair those bonds – a call to Schnee Dust Company to talk to Weiss' father was in my very near future and to get back in Blake's good books I'd likely have to buy the girl several pounds of tea leaves… Small prices to pay to regain their friendship.

But JNPR? I didn't know them and I couldn't bring myself to care how they felt about me. I apologized and I wasn't planning on offending them in the future; the only thing I could do now was let them come around on their own. Needless to say, those bridges were probably going to remained burned for a while.

Couldn't be friends with everyone – I'd just have to count my blessings and be glad Ruby was willing to forgive me. She was more important to me anyway, her and the rest of my team.

_Clang. _"Three-hundred and ninety-four..."

Yang came around almost as soon as Ruby did. Not without a stern talk about how I needed to clean up my act, considering Ruby saw me as her big brother, though. The blonde possessed a wickedly effective aptitude when it came to guilt trips. Having the rest of the team's reactions to my efforts laid out in no uncertain terms and _excruciating_ detail - "She cried that night, Enten. She cried for two hours because of you. _You. _And where were you? Off with CRDL." - made me feel like a complete and utter waste of space.

_Clang. _"Three-hundred and ninety-five..."

A sigh escaped me and my fingers stopped manipulating my Scroll. Too many thoughts running rampant in my head. I needed to focus on the here and now. Focus on things like the headmaster's app… I finished it yesterday and already it was proving to be an incredibly useful tool. I would need to speak with the man over the weekend and introduce him to it – I was sure he would be pleased.

_Clang. _"Three-hundred and ninety-six..."

I watched as the dot labeled Cardin Winchester was abruptly tossed across the dueling stage floor from my Scroll, idly wondering just what Goodwitch had in store for us. She gathered all the first year teams in the locker room at the beginning of the team dueling day and started taking us out into the dueling hall proper DMND, then EMRD, OPUL, SAFR and, most recently, CRDL.

_Clang_. "Three-hundred and ninety-seven..."

After having watched the five teams' movements from the display on my Scroll, I could at least conclude that we were being put into a maze of some sort. Every group of students started in the same spot on my map and every group of students ended in the same spot. They all took the same roundabout path through the dueling hall too, filled with switchbacks and loops that suggested they were being forced to walk that route. A maze.

_Clang_. "Three-hundred and ninety-eight..."

The fact that my fellow classmates would sometimes stop abruptly or even be tossed about the dueling hall suggested there were obstacles in this maze as well. Given Professors Oobleck and Port were also present alongside Goodwitch, I was willing to bet that they were going to try and stop us from completing this course.

_Clang_. "Three-hundred and ninety-nine..."

"Ruby," Blake stated, briefly glancing up from her book to stare the younger girl down. It came as a surprise to me that the faunus reacted first – I thought for sure that Weiss would be the one to crack, given the strained smile on her face.

Ruby glanced over at the faunus from her spot on the – disgusting – floor and then at the lockers in front of her. She looked down at the bullet in her hands, the same one she'd been bouncing off of said lockers for the last ten minutes, and then back up at Blake.

_Clang. _"Four-hundred," the girl whispered, shoving the bullet back into a pouch at her hip and directing a wide smile at the cat faunus.

The girl in question only went back to her book with an amused huff and a similar, albeit smaller, smile on her face.

The interaction was pleasing for me to watch. It was good to see them happy; it meant RWEBY could still be salvaged. It meant that, while I did go too far, I never went beyond the point of no return.

I was not sure where that point was and I knew I did not want to find out.

My Scroll was placed in my pocket after the map was disengaged – I did not need to watch CRDL, I knew the course well enough now to explain it to my teammates once we were alone in the locker room. If I was right, Goodwitch was escorting the teams out in descending order, the lowest in class rankings went first and the highest went last. That meant I had to wait until both JYDE and JNPR were removed to face Goodwitch's maze.

My brow furrowed. This challenge… the maze – something was bothering me about it. I was fairly confident that I knew exactly _what _it was, but I had not a single clue as far as the _why_.

Why was Goodwitch putting us through this show? What value lay in publicly putting us through this maze? Perhaps the woman just wanted to put on a show for the rest of the Beacon students? I had some knowledge to back that theory up, for as the morning passed, more and more second, third and fourth years showed up in the dueling hall standings to observe. Maybe she wanted the lesser, more unskilled teams to go when nobody was watching and the more competent teams to run the maze when the most observers were present?

Why, though? Why did Goodwitch care? What did the older students gain from watching us when hierarchies were already set in stone?

...Amusement, perhaps. Maybe the older students were watching for the simple pleasure of seeing first years get knocked around by their professors?

Juvenile. Surely there was a better reason, else why would the students waste their time? They had training to do, courses to study, homework that needed doing… On second thought, they _were _just teenagers. I might, well, no, I would have definitely found watching my juniors get knocked around amusing when I was their age.

A sigh escaped me and I rubbed at my face. So the older students were there to get their kicks but that still didn't explain why Goodwitch was marching us out in order. There was a purpose to it, else she wouldn't have made the effort to choose us in said order. The weaker teams were going first… they were running the course but the stronger teams weren't able to see them do it so there was no benefit in waiting on our end. Therefore, the benefit must lie with the weaker teams… The teams that went first and then watched as the stronger teams took their turn once they were done

Experience? Each team progressively made it through the course faster than the previous one did – there were exceptions, like OPUL beating out SAFR's time, but on the whole each team bested the previous one's 'score'. Maybe Goodwitch was hoping they would gain something from it? Knowledge or… or…

Or teamwork. Wasn't that what the dueling professor stressed was most important since day one? Wasn't that what she brought up in every single dueling class? Wasn't that why she constantly threw unfavorable matches at my team, only to nod in approval every time we overcame them?

Teamwork. It must be. She wanted my classmates to learn something, she wanted them to see teamwork in action… and what better way to show those classmates than by having them watch their peers' progress through this maze faster and more effectively than they did?

Ruby sighed melodramatically then, an action I expected from her given how fidgety she was after Blake made her stop throwing the bullet, and moaned: "Three. Hours."

"I'm sure she has a reason for it," Weiss sniffed, her face set in the disgusted expression she'd been wearing for the last two hours. Even the fabled Schnee neutrality had its limits and it looked like this locker room was her breaking point. "None of the other teams have returned, after all."

"Ugh," Ruby groaned, rolling over from her spot on the floor. Weiss hadn't been happy when the team leader decided the ground was the best spot to rest upon. There had been plenty of hemming and hawwing. "They're all _lucky_. _They _don't have to wait in here forever!"

"Cheer up Ruby," Yang called from her spot next to me. She shifted and stopped fiddling with her Scroll, placing the device in one of her jacket pockets. "There's only two more teams and us now. We're almost all the way through the class..."

The younger girl sighed even as Blake noted: "Long time."

Ruby glanced forlornly at the hallway. "CRDL's been gone a while… What if they got kicked out?!"

"For what," Yang said, a grin forming on her face, "smelling bad?"

"I dunno," the girl sulked, sitting up. "Why do we have to go last anyway?"

"First," Blake muttered, briefly glancing up from her book; it was the same war novel- no… no, this was a different one. A sequel maybe?

"Yes, Professor Goodwitch has been escorting each team out in accordance with its class ranking in descending order. That's why DMND went first, then EMRD, OPUL, SAFR and, finally, CRDL. Team RWEBY is first in our class, so we will go last," Weiss intoned. "I wonder, though, how she's breaking ties? Both OPUL and SAFR, and JNPR and JYDE are tied for 5th and 2nd, respectively."

"She's using senority," I said, facing the heiress neutrally despite the strained expression that appeared on her face. I went too far. I knew that. She deserved her grudge. "Whichever team has been ahead of the other one goes first. OPUL before SAFR. JYDE will go before JNPR."

A beat of silence passed over us as the girls absorbed that information or – in Blake's case – ignored me in favor of her book. The cat faunus' lack of attention was not a slight against me, I knew that because I knew the girl was not _that_ mad at me; it was more likely that she was just overly focused on her book. It was something that happened often.

"How do you remember all the teams' records," Ruby asked, a curious look on her face indicated by her raised eyebrows and slightly wider eyes.

"Lots of time spent studying them," I said idly, distracted by movement from team JYDE's direction. The four of them were getting up but Goodwitch was nowhere to be seen.

"Heads up," I said, cutting across my leader and nodding toward the approaching team. None of them looked threatening and that set me at ease… still, I shifted slightly so that I could better launch myself-

An annoyed grunt escaped me and I forced myself to calm down. This was just another team. They weren't like Neo or Torchwick, they weren't out to get us. I didn't need to get all defensive… especially because that kind of behavior was deemed unacceptable by my team. They'd made that abundantly clear.

I leaned back fully against the wall behind me, a sour look on my face.

"Jumpy," Yang teased, nudging my left arm with her elbow.

I scoffed but did not respond. Our visitors were here.

"RWEBY," Jayd Grene called as he grew close. The boy possessed an odd shade of green hair that never failed to stand out amongst our other classmates. Add to that the fact that he stood at least half a foot taller than I and he made for a very noticeable presence. On his hip was his weapon, a chain whip that he used to a devastating degree in duels. He liked to trip his opponents with it; that and his reach made him a difficult opponent for me to face. I beat him though, as did Yang; together, we were his only two losses in singles duels.

I noted Ye'lo Malamig, a younger child of the Malamig patriarch, standing just behind him. The girl's generally happy and open demeanor was a surprising contrast to Weiss, given they were both raised around the same social elite and within the same affluent lifestyle. It must have been the Schnee family's reputation with the faunus that made my teammate into the withdrawn girl she was – Malamig likely didn't have anyone after her family like that, no one to make her jump at every shifting shadow.

Lucky girl.

"Yup, that's me," Ruby chirped, flopping back down on the ground and looking up at the boy from where she lay at his feet. I heard Weiss smother a groan and felt a smile grow on my face.

"I… uh," the boy stammered, taking a step back. "I mean, the team. _Team _RWEBY. As in… just a general greeting?"

"Oh," my leader frowned, sitting back up. She glanced at each of her teammates before turning back to the green haired boy, this time with a curious look on her face. "How do you know when people are talking to you or your team, Jayd? 'Cause Jayd and JYDE sound the same right? Sorta like RWEBY and Ruby! And I always, always, _always _get confused 'cause people just expect me to know which one they mean and _sometimes _I do like when they say 'RWEBY, report for a mission' or something 'cause _I _don't report for missions alone – that's something my team does! So I know they mean _team _RWEBY even though they didn't _say _team RWEBY instead of just Ruby, like my name Ruby!"

By the end of her rant I could feel the wide grin stretching across my face and my amusement was only amplified by Jayd's reaction.

"I, uh… I, yeah?"

"So..." Ruby stood up, her hands on her hips. She leveled an expectant, no-nonsense look at the boy and given the difference in height – my leader wasn't even as tall as the boy's shoulders – it looked absolutely ridiculous.

"I think what he means to say is that he just infers what people mean based upon the context in which they say 'jade'," Ye'lo inserted, a smile on her face. She turned to Weiss. "Hello Miss Schnee, looking just as neutral as ever today!"

"We can't all be airheads," the heiress quipped. "Your shoulders are slumped, slightly."

Ye'lo laughed loudly, her dark, curly hair bouncing with the motion. "Who cares? Daddy isn't here to nag me!"

Weiss' lips grew taut and I knew her well enough to know she was suppressing a frown. "Appearances are import-"

"Yeah and so's having fun! Remember that time we dumped a punch bowl all over your dad?"

The pale Schnee heiress colored even as Yang grinned widely and leaned across me to look at the girl.

"Punch bowl," the blonde asked. "Why haven't _we _heard this story Weiss? Are you hiding a wild side from us?"

"Oh," Ye'lo inserted quickly. "You should hear some of my stories… There was this one time in Mistral-"

"That will be _quite _enough," Weiss stated, her face redder than I'd ever seen it before. She leveled a soft, if strained, smile at Jayd. "I believe you had something to say, Jayd?"

"I… yeah," the boy responded, still bewildered as Ye'lo erupted into a fit of giggles behind him. "I was meaning to ask a favor of you. Of RWEBY – _team _RWEBY, that is."

"Team," Ruby muttered under her breath, nodding. "Alright team RWEBY! You heard him! Let's hear his favor! Err… his… asking for a favor?"

"Request," Blake suggested.

"Yeah! Request for a favor!" That said, the girl spun around to face JYDE's leader again and it was then that I noticed the boy's two remaining members approaching.

The first was a dark skinned boy by the name of Legione D'Acciaio. He fought with a sword and shield and reminded me very much of an old world Roman gladiator. Lots of leather and metal armor, chest bared, he even wore some of the stereotypical sandals, the leather ones with straps that wound around his calves. He was muscular and powerful but ultimately only an average fighter. For what he had in power, he lacked in agility; his opponents usually realized that early on in the duel and after that it almost always turned in their favor.

He also had a nasty temper – an _exploitable _one.

The second was a female student and twin of the first. Her name was Legione Estate. She, like her brother, possessed dusky skin and reminded me of ancient Rome back on Earth. Where he was fierce and grim, though, she was soft and delicate. A flowing yellow dress punctuated by armored spaulders, a breastplate and forearm guards covered her body and in her hands she held a spear. I knew her appearance to be deceiving, she wasn't top of the class but she was dangerous enough with that spear to put anyone on edge.

Personally, I found it easier to refer to them as Legion D and Legion E.

"Ah," Jayd said, drawing my attention from the two siblings. He took in a deep breath and swallowed heavily. "Right, we were hoping you might have some… pointers for us?"

"Oh," Ruby said, her eyes widening. "You want advice?"

"Right. Like, ways to improve? We're trying but… well..."

"RWEBY – _team _RWEBY," Ye'lo clarified when Ruby perked up. "You guys are a powerhouse. You're unstoppable. We're doing alright on our own but we figured it couldn't hurt to ask for some trade secrets from the best of the best. Some advice from the dream team, you know?"

"You're doing more than alright," I said, drawing their attention to me. "You've stayed among the top three teams in class since the beginning of the semester. That's a lot more than most other students can say."

"Right," Jayd agreed, nodding in my direction. "But we've never been able to clinch the top spot."

An uneasy silence settled over my teammates and I then. Did this kid really think we'd help him and his team take first from us? I knew the girls were all for some healthy competition but I was also pretty sure they wouldn't actively help another team beat us. I might have taken it too far, but the class rankings _were _a competition.

"He doesn't mean it that way," Ye'lo said quickly, elbowing her partner with a wry grin on her face. "We just wanted to know if you've learned anything on the way from sixth to first that you can pass on to us lowly peons."

"Oh," Ruby laughed. "That's good. 'Cause I want to help but if you're asking for our secrets..."

"No, no, no," Jayd said, waving his hands in front of his torso. The boy's eyes were wide and his gesture was emphatically done. It struck me then, how much of a teenager he was. Until this conversation I always saw him as competition, just another face in the crowd that I needed to beat. Now, I realized that he – and every single one of my classmates, for that matter – was just a teenager. Children. Every last one of them. That it took an awkward, gangly looking boy with green hair to show me that was concerning.

"Go see Pyrrha about your shield use," I said, looking at Legion D. "You can't get fast enough or agile enough to keep up with the likes of Blake and Ruby overnight, but you _can _learn how to use your shield as more than a battering ram. That'll go a long way to evening the playing field for you against faster opponents."

The boy's eyebrows rose and he glanced down at the circular shield on his arm and then back at me.

"Differences between a kite shield and a circular shield," he asked, his eyes now narrowed.

I nodded, impressed. The boy's gladiator-esque appearance had me assuming that he was a mindless berserker. That he would hack and slash until things fell over. I should've known better than to make assumptions like that – wasn't that how Neo got her nose broken, by underestimating me?

"She'll be willing to help," I said, throwing a glance at the girl in question. She was sitting with the rest of her team, currently hunched over Jaune's Scroll. "Her fame has given her serious self-confidence issues when it comes to making friends. If you go to her asking for help then she'll give you advice readily because she's so eager to please."

I looked back to team JYDE and frowned when I saw each of them looked either surprised or disturbed.

"Thank you, Enten," Yang muttered, sarcastic. "Let's just manipulate our classmates more, shall we?"

"I'm not suggesting he manipulate her," I denied readily to the blonde, now aware that my reasoning could definitely have been taken that way. To Legion D: "Pyrrha needs friends. I wasn't suggesting you ask her for help with the intent to use her, I was making you aware of her faults so that, when she immediately helps you, you don't treat her with suspicion… That's no way to kick off the start of a friendship."

"Aww," Ruby cooed. "That's sweet of you! In a… blunt and kind of intruding way, but still sweet of you!"

"I just need to stop trying to understand you," Yang muttered, nudging me with her shoulder.

I scoffed. "As if a lower life form could ever understand me."

She punched me in the gut and set her elbow on my back when I hunched over. "What was that? I couldn't hear you over-"

My hand grasped one of her ankles and I used it to tug her off of the bench we were on. She fell to the floor with an undignified squawk and I laughed.

"Children," Weiss chided. "_Please._"

"She started it," I muttered even as Yang yelled: "Nuh-uh!"

"Start having team discussions every night," I heard Ruby say to JYDE. I thought she sounded affectionate but I couldn't exactly focus on the conversation anymore, not when Yang started trying to body check me off the bench. I quickly got her in a headlock but at this rate, she'd push both of us over the back-

I fell over the edge of my seat with a yelp and pushed the blonde away from me, lest her head hit the ground before my body. She stumbled and fell over anyway but at least her head wasn't on track for a collision with the floor anymore – she caught herself before she fell over completely.

I, on the other hand…

"Clumsy," Blake noted with a sideways glance at me as I pushed myself up into a sitting position.

"Yeah," I grunted. "This gauntlet isn't exactly conducive to graceful movements."

And wasn't that true. My new shield featured a big, bulky full arm-length gauntlet that I wore on my right arm. Under it, I wore leather armor to protect my skin from the unforgiving metal edges that comprised my new weapon in its collapsed form. My skin was still rubbed raw – something Ruby and I were working on preventing – but at least the massive shield never drew blood.

Three additional leather straps wound around my torso to help keep the gauntlet firmly attached to my person. The portion of leather armor covering my shoulder would latch on to the straps, allowing me to spread some of its weight out and ease the burden on my right arm. Finally, I carried four of the massive bullets that the shield fired on my left hip in a customized leather harness that attached itself to the lowest of the three leather straps across my chest.

I was happy with the still unpainted, unnamed weapon. Slower and clumsier I may be in battle, I could now easily block gargantuan blows that would have sent me flying before. The weight of the weapon and the strength of its metal assured that.

It wasn't a perfect weapon, certainly, but it was definitely better. And not only that, this shield's metal actually managed to reveal yet another unknown quirk of my Semblance: my Aura could be compacted into a projectile. It was an unforeseen discovery and one that I was incredibly excited about even now. I could channel my Aura down the firing barrel of the shield and use it as a projectile. Smaller and far, _far _more compact than the salvos I could unleash from my fists, the 'Aura Bullet' was much more efficient and capable of dealing more lasting damage.

It was like comparing a wave of water to a fire hose. Precise and forceful was much more dangerous.

The only downside was that I could only fire these Aura Bullets from my shield. That meant that I had to point the shield's tip in the direction I wanted to fire. It was relatively easy to do when I practiced with it yesterday in Beacon's forest but it had yet to get a test run in combat.

"Team JYDE," Goodwitch's voice sounded suddenly and I looked over at the hallway leading to the dueling hall to find the woman in question standing with her arms crossed, her face as impassive as ever. "Please follow me."

That said, the woman abruptly turned on her heel and walked from the room.

"Well," Ye'lo chirped to team RWEBY at large. "I guess that's us. Wish us luck!"

"Good luck," Ruby called as the girl pulled her leader toward the dueling hall. Legione D and Legione E followed sedately behind the duo.

"Did she mean to actually _say _good luck or just, like, mentally say it," my leader asked once JYDE left the hall.

A brief moment of silence settled over us before:

"Yes," Blake muttered.

* * *

**A/N:** Wow! So these past few weeks have been… hectic. Yeah, let's go with hectic. I managed to (possibly) tear up my meniscus, got myself into one of those relationship things and still work full time… it makes for a busy schedule! No worries though, I'm still writing this story and I'm still intent on finishing it. I am, however, going to modify the rate at which I post new chapters to two weeks rather than one. So expect the next one on/around the 28th!

(How many of you thought this was one of those A/N chapters where the author drops the story?)

(01/20/2016) Revised. Also, still no plans on dropping this story.

Anyway, this chapter is a little shorter than usual but given the next scene got _waaaaay_ out of hand, I figured it was best to cut it off here. Hope you liked it! Now, for the reviews…

**Orion Smith:** Curiously enough, I have the same feeling… this inner conflict is a little too deep seeded to be done away with so easily! Enten and his disagreements on what is right and necessary with the rest of the team will play a theme in the rest of the story (or at least that's the plan right now). Thanks for the review!

**Shotgun Steve:** CRDL… is an odd problem for Enten. They aren't necessarily an _active _one, but they are certainly an issue that needs to be watched. Of course, we've yet to see the fallout from Jaune getting a 'real' application and thereby ridding CRDL of their leverage over them. Who knows what'll happen when that blows over? Thanks for taking the time to review!

**TheMAO17: **Ruby's "I want to live" line was pulled from your review – it was a fitting argument for her. Kudos! As far as the anxiety when a new chapter hits… I wanted to ease you into it, we can't send Enten off the deep end without a little build up first, you know? … (I'm joking. Maybe.) Lastly, you're right. Bonds that survive strain like this come out of it all the stronger. And RWEBY's bonds will need to be strong. Ironclad, even. Thanks for the review and I hope you continue to enjoy the story!

**Riero: **I'd be wary of saying _most _people spend their quiet moments on introspection. _Some_, sure, but I feel a core personality is formed more by the day-to-day events that a person experiences. Following that: growing up on Earth vs Remnant is sure to produce some dramatic differences in a person's behavior, as we've seen with Enten. That said, I agree with you that his core personality should be figured out by now. And it has! Everything he's done, both 'sides' of him, has been to protect his loved ones. One side is ruthless (Remnant) and the other is more compassionate (Earth). Thanks for your review!

**Unfocused Brain: **Slimiest is a new one! I haven't heard Enten described with that one yet (though I can certainly see why he might be!). Also, kudos on 'a machiavellian way', I had to look that one up – it describes perfectly what he was doing. I like it!

**Alektas: **I could see the 'focused to the point of obsession' angle rather than the dual personalities one. Honestly that's more along the lines of what I was thinking when I diagnosed what he was doing, a 'trigger' of sorts that sets him off, has him go ruthless. Food for thought on my end, certainly! Thanks for the review!

**Akio Blade: **Done. I'll do you one better too, come two Fridays from now, I'll given you _another_ chapter over the weekend! Thanks for your review!

**Guest: **I am not dead. Not yet, anyway. And if I am I would enjoy being informed of it; I think knowing you're alive is rather important to living. But no. I LIVE ON!

Till next time.

-Phailen


	20. Chapter 20

_Several days later – Week 15 – Weekday morning_

"Did you double check the chamber release mechanism?"

"Yeah."

"So it doesn't lock-"

"It's working, Ruby."

"Okay. Good. What about-"

"The support bars are good to go too. Your paint even dried clean."

The girl breathed a sigh of relief. "I was worried it would smudge…"

"Nope," I said, laughing. "Your stick figures are fi-"

"They aren't stick figures! They're you guys' faces!"

"Huh, I always thought I looked more dead sexy than that."

Ruby's mouth worked silently for a few seconds but the girl didn't blush – she'd come a long way since the beginning of the semester. Now, on the verge of starting our second semester at Beacon Academy, she was really starting to come into her own. She was more confident and far more self-assured. She didn't worry about making new friends or being social or much of anything at all, really.

With the exception of walking in high heels, of course. If Yang could be trusted then her younger sister was probably as bad as I imagined I would be in heels.

"You're such an old fart," my leader returned, shaking her head. "Who says _dead sexy_ anyway?"

"Careful, you make that face enough and it'll be there to stay permanently."

She scoffed and stuck her tongue out at me.

I let a laugh escape me and adjusted one of my shield's leather straps; it was starting to dig into my shoulder.

Ruby and I were traipsing through Beacon's forest, toward team RWEBY's meeting spot. It was a hot day and there was no breeze to take away the heat's bite so I was more than a little uncomfortable but given how busy my schedule had gotten, I didn't have any choice but to test out the cannon today.

I met with Headmaster Ozpin over the weekend and, as I thought, he was pleased with the map's capabilities. He wanted me to add functionality to search by username or device ID and I was perfectly fine with coding that in over the next week or two. It wouldn't be overly hard to do and, frankly, should have been included originally – I just didn't have the time to make it as complete as I wanted. Features would have to be prioritized and that was the Headmaster's decision to make.

If I wasn't working on Ozpin's app, then I was doing homework, spending time with the girls, working on my shield, investigating my Aura or working on my tetris-esque game. Writing home and relaxing were included in there somewhere too.

"Do you think we can try your Aura thing again today?"

"You mean with your Semblance," I asked, glancing over at the girl. The 'Aura thing' she was referencing was a more recent discovery I made about my own Semblance in conjunction with the rest of team REWBY – it turned out I could influence _a lot _more than just my own Aura.

Another person's, for example… The possibilities were nearly endless.

"Yup," Ruby chirped. "I'm trying to do what you described but it's not easy!"

"It wouldn't be. It took me nearly my entire life to get to this point of Aura manipulation."

"Ugh. But you're so old! I don't want to be in a retirement home when I learn it!"

I laughed. "I think you're vastly overestimating my age." And, when she opened her mouth: "You know what I mean."

"Hmph."

Ruby dwelt on my past life for just about as long as she dwelt upon her other worries: for a few minutes or until something else distracted her. She bombarded me with questions – _loudly _– the morning after I told her and Weiss but other than that episode, it appeared as though the girl was over the oddity that was my existence.

I for one wasn't complaining. It took Yang and Blake several days to adjust when I told them; there was a lot of awkward glancing and nervous laughter that I did not miss at all with Ruby. The girl might not understand the severity of what she now knew – or maybe she did – but I was willing to look beyond that given the ease with which she accepted me.

Weiss was another matter entirely. We were preoccupied enough as it was with rebuilding our friendship; my first life – and Blake's faunus nature, too – were put on the back burner for the Schnee heiress.

"Look," I sighed, sending a sideways glance at my leader, "work on compacting your Aura into your hand first. I've found that people are better able to do that than focus it in their legs, like how your Semblance works. If you can hold it in place there, then you can work on holding it in place in your legs."

"And then I'll finally be able to stop… uh, _bleeding _Aura?"

"Yeah," I responded, nodding. It was an odd thing, how Ruby used her Semblance. I got the girl to let me put my hands on her calves when she was focusing her Aura and realized that she was wasting just as much energy as she was utilizing. Maybe it was my familiarity with the stuff or maybe it was another facet of my Semblance, but I could… almost, _feel _Aura. Not like one felt water or clothing… it was more of a tingling feeling in my skin. Gooseflesh. It was an off-putting feeling, to be certain, but it proved useful in allowing me to help the rest of RWEBY with their Semblances.

Ruby channeled her Aura into her legs, Blake into her back, Weiss, her hands.

Yang was the outlier in that she – somehow – instinctively infused her _entire body _with Aura. That was hard. Very hard.

And the blonde didn't even know what she was doing until I had her show me her Semblance.

At any rate, I found out that I could use my Aura to help the girls channel their own, after a fashion. The first time I forced my Aura into Ruby's calves, the younger girl had darted around RWEBY's clubhouse for nearly five minutes straight.

Apparently my Aura's consistency was a _tad bit _thicker. Harder to break up. And that made sense – I spent my entire life on Remnant figuring out how to manipulate my Aura into changing form and consistency. It was more malleable than the girls' and that was definitely an advantage I could use in battle… I just needed to figure out _how_.

Another sigh escaped me. Yet another thing to do.

At least Weiss was no longer mad at me. Given we spent nearly every day together in some fashion, the grudge was bound to wither away eventually. The broken trust, however, could not be repaired or forgotten so easily. That was something I would have to work to rebuild, especially because the heiress opened up to me on such a personal level. I was fairly certain that I knew more about her home life than any other member of the team and then I went and forced her into a meeting with her father.

Sound plan it may have been, I should have seen the damage it would do before I acted. I was foolish.

To that end, I also needed to contact the Schnee patriarch about canceling the meeting this coming weekend.

'_I should start keeping a to-do list…'_

"So, we _finally _get to see that bad boy in action," Yang's voice called, serving to draw me from my thoughts. I looked up to find her grinning widely at me from the middle of team RWEBY's training area in Beacon's forest. I returned the gesture.

"You bet, blondie," I said as Ruby wandered over to where Blake had placed herself under a tree.

"About time," Weiss frowned. "Does this mean it'll be _out _of our clubhouse?"

"Maybe," I returned. "I could put it in one of your suitcases instead."

The Schnee heiress scoffed. "That monstrosity is _nowhere_ near small enough to fit inside _my _luggage."

And she was right. The shield was much, much larger than Aegis ever was.

"Looks big," Sjeverni Suhoca commented from where she was standing near Blake. "Looks powerful… but slow."

I allowed the edge of my lips to quirk upward. "Slow and heavy, sure, but with this team," I said, gesturing to the girls, "slow and defensive are the only pieces we're lacking."

Ruby nodded silently, her eyes locked onto the shield's form. We talked about this several times over the past few weeks, what RWEBY was missing and how I could best fill that role with my new weapon. Yang was a bruiser, able to dish out plenty of hurt and take a good amount herself, but she couldn't extend that ability to the rest of the team.

Blake was the most offensively aligned member of RWEBY, perhaps among the first year students at Beacon too – only Nora could give the cat faunus a run for her money in raw potential as far as damaging blows were concerned. Defensively, the cat faunus only had her Semblance and her agility to rely upon. It all focused on her not being hit and that wasn't always a possibility. It was why she and I worked so well together.

Next, there was Weiss. The Schnee heiress was a finesse fighter, a duelist, skilled in the use of her blade and the owner of a mind honed in battle strategy. Her glyphs made her invaluably unpredictable given the angles of attack they provided her and the vast amount of applications the different kinds of glyphs she could produce offered. She was our jack-of-all-trades, the trump card of RWEBY.

Finally, there was Ruby herself. The girl could double as both a long ranged gunner and a close combat fighter, depending upon the situation. Her scythe made her very, _very _mobile on the battlefield and if I had to assign her a role then it would be interference. Distraction, she was most at home keeping our enemies unbalanced, separated and confused. Her strategic mind and battle awareness were not to be discounted either – it made her most valuable at long range, where she could oversee the fighting and make judgements based upon her observations.

Finally, there was me. Enten. My Aura was high, not quite as high as Yang's but then hers was absolutely prodigious in its size. Years of martial arts and hunter training made me fairly strong, strong enough to at least heft a large kite shield around in a fight. My Semblance added to both my durability and my versatility; so long as I did not have to attack or move too often, I was very, _very _hard to take down. All of that made me a natural fit for the last role RWEBY needed – an immovable object. Something to offset Yang's unstoppable force and fill out the team so that it was as dynamic as possible.

Suhoca hummed and her hair flashed a dull purple. She was a recent addition to RWEBY's team training exercises and was at first reluctant – even somewhat pessimistic – about training with a team two years her junior. Still, Uhrglas' blunder as UHNS' leader left her in a difficult position. She was without a senior team to help her grow and her own teammates were incredibly unmotivated. Thus, when RWEBY offered, UHNS's S accepted.

I knew she was satisfied with her decision. She mentioned to me yesterday that her ranking in her dueling class climbed higher since she joined us a week ago; conveniently enough, she made sure to speak about that when Hvid Gamle – the leader of HRCN, the team above UHNS – was around the clubhouse. It was clear she wanted to impress him and perhaps she was successful, I didn't know, all I knew was that her presence at RWEBY's team training sessions was mutually beneficial. The girl had some remarkable insights into fighting that allowed my team to further solidify its reputation on dueling days.

Using light to blind an opponent, for example, would have been obvious to me were my Semblance able to produce ultraviolet light like hers could. What I did not think of was using polishes that made metal more reflective to achieve the same result or consciously placing my back to the student audience, so that the dueling hall's array of lights would be in my opponent's eyes.

Mutually beneficial, certainly.

"Hey! Enten," Yang called, waving her hands in front of my face. "I know you didn't come out here just to show off that big old gauntlet. Let's see it work!"

"Of course, my dear," I demurred, stepping away from the blonde when she tried to punch my shoulder and urging my shield into expanding. It did so immediately and, with several heavy shifting sounds of metal, arrived at its final kite shield form. It was still four feet in length and just over three in width, the massive artillery barrel still lanced down the center of its girth, ending in two sharpened points on either side of the opening at the bottom point of the shield. Little vents – similar to those on Aegis – were now built into the sides of the shield though they were much thinner and wider now – metal that did not accept Aura was generally easier to shape and so Ruby and I were able to make the channels through which my Aura traveled much more compact and much more efficient.

It was painted a dull white with blue highlights and my image – a simple kite shield – was displayed in the same dull navy blue coloring near the top of the shield.

"Wow," Weiss muttered appreciatively while Yang whistled. Blake smiled sardonically at me and I threw an expectant look back at her. I knew the cat faunus was of the opinion that my weapons were too large and clunky but she certainly didn't complain when RWEBY's Bruiser pairing came out to play.

"You need new clothes," the Schnee heiress continued. "You have a new shield but you're still wearing the same jeans and the same shirt… We're going shopping this weekend," she decided.

I hummed noncommittedly, uneasy and unwilling to argue her, _especially _so soon after she stopped being mad at me for the fight with CRDL – I just wanted to test out my shield. Her discussion with Adel over shopping made me wary enough of her as it was… I did _not _want to get dragged into another conversation like that.

Evidently Ruby was in the same boat, given the way she started bouncing from one foot to the other.

"Come on," the girl whined. "We can talk about shopping later, _after _Enten is gone! Let's test out the cannon!"

"Let's," Blake repeated, slowly putting her book away with a blank look on her face. "_Enten_ is wearing the cannon."

I grinned. "Let's call this a team-building activity," I said, glancing at the other members of RWEBY.

Weiss looked both confused and wary while Yang was staring at the bullets on my waist and wearing a pleased smile upon her face. Blake was still giving me an unimpressed look and Ruby was growing more and more excited with every passing moment. She was the only one in the loop, given she helped me make the thing.

"See, this guy," I said, hefting one of the large bullets up and out of its leather casing. "This guy is a little too heavy for me to fire by myself. Too much recoil, you see… Even with a full gauntlet and enough machinery to absorb the force of a speeding train."

That _might _have been an exaggeration.

"So," Weiss ventured slowly. "You want us to… what? Push against your back?"

"Not quite," I responded, sliding the bullet into the shield's barrel. It made a foreboding _schlink _sound followed by a short series of rapid mechanical _clangs _that signaled it was locked into place. The back of the barrel was abruptly sealed off by a circular piece of metal. "I can't aim this thing effectively, not with how big it is."

"Oh baby," Yang muttered coyly as an aside to Blake. The cat faunus rolled her eyes.

"So after missing my target by nearly twenty feet last week _and _getting tossed off my feet _again_," I continued, ignoring the blonde. "Ruby and I figured that we may as well kill two birds-"

Ruby cleared her throat. Right, her thing with birds.

"Uhh, deal with both problems in one fell swoop by having the rest of team RWEBY help out!"

With that I pressed one of the three buttons located along the gauntlet's pointer finger and four bars extended themselves along the length of my arm. Two were located on my upper arm, two on my lower arm and each of them was about a foot in length. When held up horizontally, the shield would hover just over them.

"I'm in," Yang said immediately, her eyes bright, and she hurried over. "Where do I stand?"

"That's up to you," I returned, pleased. "Ruby's spot is the only one that's claimed and I think you know which one that is…"

"I'm gonna guess it's the bar with the suns and stick figures drawn onto it."

"They're _roses_ and _faces_," Ruby insisted, adamant. To me: "You told her to say that didn't you?"

I shook my head, a grin on my face. "Told you," I sang.

She scoffed. "There's no such thing as a red sun," the girl muttered as she stomped over, clearly disgruntled.

A grunt escaped me as I obliged her and hefted my right arm up. It was now perfectly straight and would remain so because the shield's armor locked into place so that the firing rail could be used properly. The shield itself was lined up with my fist at the end of said rail, its point extending out past my hand a good two feet; the bullet, I knew, rested now in the back of the barrel, just over my forearm.

Ruby wasted no time in grasping her support bar, still muttering to herself about suns and roses, while Yang looked on, intrigued.

"So I just… grab one of these," she asked, hesitantly reaching toward the one on the front right. Ruby's was on the front left – where the aiming sight was located. It was her job to make certain we hit our target, given I could not do it myself.

I nodded at the same time Ruby chirped: "Yup!"

'_Trust her to forget about her lack of artistic skills in the face of a big gun.'_

"Take the back right one," I said. "You and Blake are taller, better you stand opposite each other so that the shield stays steadier."

"Alright," Yang said slowly, experimenting with the support bar on the right side of my upper arm. "It's kind of awkward…"

"Does it need to be longer?"

"No… that's fine. It just… it's going straight across my face right now. I can't put my shoulder against it and duck my head down, you know?"

"Maybe have it protrude at a downward angle," I asked Ruby. The girl had partially turned around when her older sister made the awkward comment.

"Yeah," she said, nodding. "Maybe we can add a section where they can fit their shoulders in, too."

"Well," Yang muttered, "in the meantime it feels alright if I hold it over my head… kind of like this." She moved one of her feet backward and grasped the bar with both hands. She then ducked her head down and pushed forward.

I nodded, pleased. That was exactly what Ruby and I theorized was necessary. Four more bodies bracing the shield would hopefully allow us to fire it successfully. It was a slow, unwieldy process now but, given time and practice, it would hopefully become much easier and faster in the near future.

"Hey, you two," I called to Blake and Weiss, both of whom were still looking on warily. Suhoca had contented herself to leaning up against a tree, watching the proceedings with what I thought was an amused smirk on her face. "You gonna help out or what?"

"Is this thing safe," Weiss muttered, her brow furrowed.

"Or _loud_," Blake added with a pointed look directed at me.

'_Define safe and loud.'_

"Yes on both counts. Err… yes on one and no on the other."

"Which one is which," the Schnee heiress murmured hesitantly. Still, she slowly made her way over, inspecting the front right support bar for a moment before trying to duplicate Yang's posture.

"It's too tall," she said, clearly frustrated and I could understand why. I was almost a foot taller than she was, the support bar, then, was level with her eyes.

"Hold on," I muttered. "Once Blake gets over here… I think I can help with that."

The faunus accepted my pointed stare stoically and eyed me warily in return. Her arms were crossed and I _knew _she was about to dig her proverbial heels in, she had that look in her eye.

"It's not _too _loud," I said, exasperated. "Your ears _might _be ringing for half a minute. Nothing more."

"_My _ears," she asked, "or yours?"

"Yours," I said. And because Suhoca was starting to eye the girl: "You're closer to the barrel so it'll be minutely louder for you. Nothing too much louder than what I get."

She frowned but slowly started over.

"Course, _you _could always wear the shield… if you're so concerned about being farther away-"

"I'm fine right here," she said, grasping the support bar behind Ruby. It was beginning to get crowded so I shifted my stance and aligned myself sideways with my arm. Blake and Yang immediately took advantage of the lack of _me _behind them and shuffled backward, allowing the last two members of RWEBY some breathing room as well.

Weiss cleared her throat then, staring pointedly at her support bar. It was perfectly level with her eyes and I imagined she looked a lot like my little sister when the girl was pouting to get more sweets.

"Blake, Yang," I started, an amused smile on my face now. Ruby was making the most of her spot – she stood on the tips of her toes and could just barely draw level with her aiming sight. "Crouch down a little, brace yourselves more."

They did as I asked and I lowered my center of gravity as well. Eventually – for synchronizing movement between three people was hard, much less five – the supporting bars were at a height where Weiss and Ruby could comfortably grab them.

"This is so awkward," Weiss muttered, ducking her head beneath the shield's girth and grasped her support bar over her head. The Schnee heiress was directly under the widest part of the shield, as was Ruby.

That fact – the shield being too large for the girls to duck under – presented Ruby and I with a difficult problem. How could RWEBY's leader aim if the shield was directly over her head?

We ended up having to build the aiming reticle into the gauntlet itself. Even now I could glimpse the small, circular piece of glass as it protruded from the inside of my forearm. It was awkward for Ruby to use, given the shield above her head, and she would need to duck her head before we fired… more improvements for the future, no doubt.

"Alright," Ruby called, "everyone ready?"

"Wait," Yang said, bracing herself against the shield's weight. I grimaced when I felt the pressure on my gauntlet increase, I actually had to pull back to keep from-

"Don't push forward yet. Wait to do that until just before we fire," I said. "Otherwise I'll have to pull back to keep the shield level. Just hold it for now… we'll… we'll count down or something so that you know when to throw your weight against it."

"Are you calling me fat," Yang intoned, her tone dangerous. She obeyed all the same, though, as did Weiss and Blake, albeit with even more displeased grumbling.

"It'll all be worth it," I assured them, ignoring the blonde's comment. "Just bear with us for another minute or two."

"Right," Ruby said, breathing deeply. "Okay. Here we go… moment of truth! Uh, target is… that big tree about fifty feet out. The one with the 'Y' shaped branches."

I set my feet in the position they would need to be in to brace myself against the force firing the bullet would produce. It put more of the shield's weight on my arm but with the girls helping me lift it, the increased burden was hardly noticeable.

"Three," Ruby muttered, her head abnormally still as she – presumably – aimed the shield.

"Brace yourselves on one. Ruby, expect the downward shift," I murmured quietly.

"Right. Two," Ruby continued and I saw her press up against my arm. Yang, Weiss and Blake must have seen the movement because they all stood a little taller.

I was thankful then that we were so used to working together, else this would have been a nightmare to pull off. Even with our team drills, we were having a few issues coordinating our movements. Weiss was a little too slow or Yang a little too fast. I could only hope we would get better with practice else the work Ruby and I put into this weapon would go to waste.

"Get ready to brace," Ruby muttered.

"And you remember to duck your head," I noted.

"Thanks dad," my leader snarked. "Okay… right. Ready… and… One!"

As one, RWEBY shifted our weight forward and I fought against the instinctive urge to pull back. It felt like I was going to fall-

"Fire!"

I made sure the girls' heads were clear and then-

_**BOOM!**_

I felt and heard, rather than saw, the shield rocket back on its rail, all the way to my shoulder. My legs absorbed the momentum without too much trouble and I heard the girls grunt as they likely felt the pressure the shield put on them as well. Together, we were forced back perhaps a foot or two total before the shield came to rest at the top of my shoulder, hovering over my head and blocking out the sun.

"_YES! _We did it! It hit!"

I straightened, carefully removing my arms from the girls' grasp, and looked to where Ruby had been aiming the shield.

My jaw dropped.

"By dust," Weiss muttered quietly, awed. Her shoulders were slack, something that the prim and proper girl _never _allowed to happen. She continued, weakly: "We… we hit the tree."

"This… This is dangerous," I said, mostly to myself. The bullet hit the tree, it _definitely _hit the tree… the problem was it didn't stop there. It completely decimated our original target, turning it into shards of bark and broken, battered branches. The bullet felled it completely and then continued on to impact the ground some twenty feet farther away.

'_It was a small miracle none of us were hit by debris.'_

The area around the bullet's impact site was utterly destroyed. Where there used to be grass on the ground and trees providing a thick canopy as a means of shelter from the sun, there was now only disturbed dirt and soil. The trees that formerly stood tall and proud lay on the ground, splintered and annihilated. And that was if they were _lucky. _There were two trees that had been completely reduced down to battered stumps. All other evidence that there was a tree there previously was now in the air, in the form of wood dust and tiny chips of bark that fell limply to the upturned ground.

I glanced at the shield on my arm, still pristinely painted and deceptive in its innocence. It looked like an object meant solely for protection, to shield others from harm and keep safe those close to me. But underneath the surface, underneath the strong, unyielding defense lurked a power that I _needed _to be careful with. Raw destructive power. Enough to clearly level the better portion of an average house.

"Woah," Yang muttered, staring wide eyed at the destruction we wrought. "Just… remind me not to piss Enten off anymore."

I scoffed. "As if you could _ever _make me _that _mad."

"Oh I bet I can do it," she laughed quietly. "Never underestimate Yang Xiao Long."

"Noted."

"Only you two could make jokes after that," Weiss noted dryly, eying the shield as she did. "Have you decided on a name yet?"

I mutely shook my head when she looked at me.

"Decimator," Blake inserted, turning away from the clearing. "Destruction. Annihilator. Devastator… _Dangerous_. Power… that much power is dangerous. Corrupts."

"You sound like you're speaking from experience," I noted softly and frowned when her eyes lowered.

"A friend," she explained shortly, a minute glance tossed at Suhoca as she did. "A _former_ friend."

I glanced too at the third year – she was still looking at the impact site, an awed look on her face. I didn't quite know how I felt about her being here for this. I wasn't sure I wanted anyone outside of RWEBY to know of the destructive potential of my new weapon but then, hindsight was twenty-twenty. If only Ruby and I knew how devastatingly powerful it was going to be… we could have planned a separate outing to test it out.

"It's a last resort," I decided, glancing at my shield.

"What?! Think of all the Grimm we could destroy with that thing! We should figure out how you can carry more bullets – maybe the rest-"

"A last resort," I repeated, cutting across Ruby. The girl frowned.

"It's not. Think of what we could do with that! RWEBY – the _team _– wouldn't even have to get close to the baddies to complete our missions. We'll be safer, much, much, much safer with it. We should figure out how to use it _more_. Not _less_!"

"The potential is… promising," Weiss muttered, eying the forest's new clearing. "If dangerous. We should be careful with it but we shouldn't ignore it entirely."

I grunted, still uncertain. There was too much that could go wrong. Too many mistakes that could be made and mistakes made with a weapon like this would end in death.

No two ways about it.

"Weren't you all for doing _everything _you could for the team just last week," Yang asked, a mostly neutral look on her face. The eyebrows belied her curiosity. "What gives?"

_-a leg appeared abruptly in my vision, hurtling toward my nose. It was fast. Too fast-_

"I just think-" I swallowed. "It takes a certain kind of person to kill another human being. I don't want to be that person."

Ruby gasped, her eyes wide. "But! I don't-"

"Then Jaune," Weiss asked.

"Jaune," I repeated, looking back toward the ruined clearing. "Jaune was… Jaune…"

Why was I comfortable with sabotaging the blond and potentially getting him killed? It benefited RWEBY to keep JNPR behind us in the class rankings so the _reason _behind my actions was clear… but my reaction, or lack thereof, was not.

"It was easy to distant myself from that," I said quietly. A depressing feeling came over me then, one that made me want to hide, to avoid contact with the rest of my team. It was not a comforting feeling and it was one that I did not enjoy having.

Shame.

"I could tell myself that he brought all of that on himself. By… Well, by being here," I swallowed again, now painfully aware of the silence pervading my surroundings, even Suhoca was listening. "I'm… uh. I suppose I'm not quite ready to kill someone. I don't want to do that. So… in Jaune's case, I hid." A scoff escaped me. "I hid like a thrice damned coward."

I heard – though only just – Blake shuffle closer behind me and felt one of her hands land on my shoulder a few moments later. "At least you realized that," she started quietly. "My friend didn't."

"We aren't gonna kill people with it," Ruby said in the silence after Blake stopped speaking. "Just Grimm."

"And when we face people like Neo and Torchwick? What then?"

"We'll just _not _use it," my leader insisted.

"So next time," I muttered, "we'll let them get away in an airship again, without even trying to fire on them?"

Ruby floundered for words and her brow furrowed. I saw Weiss shift in my peripheral and Suhoca's hair flashed.

"Of course not," I scoffed, drawing a surprised look from team RWEBY's leader. "Of course we'll fire on them. We _have _to fire on them… because people like that…"

_-shrapnel from the shield cut across my face in searing lines. The weight! The weight… it was too much. I couldn't- I was going die! Death- A cold feeling overcame me. I didn't want to die!_

"People like that need to be stopped. And if this," I continued, lifting up the shield, "helps us do that… then so be it. It's useful and it certainly serves a purpose… but…"

"Last resort," Blake echoed.

"An ultimatum," I nodded. "Ultimatum… I like it, heavy enough to keep us grounded. Its name is Ultimatum."

"Ultimatum," Yang repeated, nodding as well. "Sounds pretty intimidating to me. I approve."

Suhoca scoffed, her eyes drifting back toward the destruction wrought by Ultimatum. "As if you guys needed another leg up on your classmates. All that power… maybe I should consider enhancing my rings a little bit. Find better focal gems… Hey Schnee – your family own any-"

"None for you," Weiss sneered down her nose. "Why don't you put forth the effort and _find _some?"

"As if precious stones just fall out of the sky. Hmph, fine. Keep your family jewels then."

"Maybe you could expand them into gloves," Ruby offered amidst Yang's chortling. "Somehow channel some Aura into them before you use your Semblance?"

The third year grunted. "Maybe. Either way, looks like I have some research to do… wouldn't want you firsties to catch up to me, your run through the maze told me you're already pretty damn close."

Our run through the maze was a good way to describe the quick work we'd made of Goodwitch's obstacle course. We beat JNPR – the second place team – by over two minutes.

We had our team drills to thank for it. After spending so much time getting to know each other on the battlefield, we were able to somewhat accurately predict what the other members of the team were going to do without even speaking. Case in point: I charged ahead about half way through the maze to stop a door from slamming down and locking the team in a miniature arena with Professor Oobleck. Weiss' glyphs appeared under my feet and Yang sent a barrage of bullets at the green haired man, all without a single word from Ruby.

We made it out of the arena unscathed and left our professor with what I thought was a smile on his face. Later, I learned that we were _supposed _to become trapped with him.

Needless to say, Goodwitch had been impressed with our performance.

"You mind if I bounce ideas off of you, Red?"

"Sure," Ruby chirped. "We can talk about it later if you want, like after class on Thursday? You know, since that's the second year's dueling day and third years have the-"

"Yup," Suhoca said. "That'll work… And thanks, by the way."

"Not so bad asking the first years for help now, huh," I asked, a little more pointedly than I intended. The way the third year cut across Ruby didn't sit well with me.

"Tch, stuff it asshole!"

But then, this _was _Sjeverni Suhoca. Rude and demanding was sort of her M.O.

* * *

_Several days later – Week 15 – Friday, dueling class_

I ended up going on a win-streak in our singles Friday dueling class. It put my record at _6-3_ and secured me a spot in the upper half of our class. My three losses – Yang, Weiss and Nora – were respectable and most of my six wins – especially Jayd, Ren and Regen – were easily worth bragging about too. I could not decide whether Jayd or Ren gave me a better fight. In the end I decided it did not matter, both battles were exhilarating.

Overall team RWEBY was solidly at the top of the class in the singles standings, I shared my _6-3 _record with Blake and we actually had the lowest rankings in our team. Yang had solidified herself as a dominant fighter with an _8-1 _record that put her just behind Pyrrha while Ruby and Weiss both boasted _7-2 _records, their only losses being to the Nikos girl and to Yang.

JNPR – and JYDE, for that matter – were both down an intimidating 1.3 points. Of course with Pyrrha clocking in at _9-0_, JNPR still laid claim to the best fighter in class. Nora and Ren weren't far behind, both sat at _6-3_ and even Jaune managed a _1-8_ record.

"-semester is drawing to an end," Goodwitch was saying. "Foreign students will begin arriving at the end of next week for the Vytal Festival-"

Around me, the girls all expressed their excitement in hushed whispers and energetic shadow boxing. I was eager for the Festival too, though it was somewhat dampened given my upbringing.

Faunus generally weren't allowed at the Vytal Festival. There was no official law or rule but Vale's human population became even more bigoted when the festival rolled around. No one wanted their city's image stained with so many visitors in town and faunus were almost always seen as a negative aspect of society. Thus, a lot of the non-humans just avoided going all together. Some even threw their own festivals, like my family's community…

Maybe I could convince the girls to go on one of our free weekends? Blake would definitely be interested. I thought Weiss would too, the girl was still very clearly interested in my family. It wouldn't be any trouble to convince Ruby either; she was extremely attracted to anything faunus and had been since meeting my family. Learning Blake's secret only increased her fervor.

Yang would probably go too. She was always up for a night out on the town and I knew she felt suffocated sometimes given the rest of the team usually didn't want to go into town…_ever_. Weiss was the only exception to that rule but the white haired girl's enthusiasm paled in the face of the blonde's.

"Given the tournament's size, only our best fighters will be allowed to compete," Goodwitch said. "The top third of this class will be put forward for the qualifying rounds and of those third, perhaps half _might_ advance to the tournament itself."

She paused then and allowed the excited murmuring to die down. "Now, let us begin… Do we have any volunteers?"

Many in the class, energized from her speech no doubt, jumped to their feet. The professor smiled.

"Miss Nikos, thank you for volunteering."

And just like that, every single student sat down. It was startling to me, even after spending the better part of four months at Beacon, what the redhead's reputation could do.

"Well," Yang snorted. "So much for their spines…"

"They won't last in the tournament. If they even get there," Weiss stated, an unimpressed look on her face.

Still, she wasn't standing up either so she didn't have much room to talk. She already faced Pyrrha once, though; maybe she thought once was enough? Yang wasn't rising to the challenge either and _that _surprised me. The blonde was always looking for a good fight. Actually, if I remembered right, every single member on team RWEBY fought Pyrrha in the past. Every member except for me, anyway.

I glanced at Ruby and found that the girl had a frown on her face; that was worrying. She barely ever frowned. It was only a minute downturn of her lips, just barely visible, but I was able to read her facial expressions remarkably well after spending so much time with the girl. She was afraid… or at least worried. The way her eyes traveled over the rest of her classmates, the way her hands fisted in her skirt. It all spoke to me of fear… not of Pyrrha, not necessarily, but of her reputation? Or her skills? I could see that. She was intimidated.

I looked to Blake next and my eyebrows arched in surprise. The faunus wasn't reading now, even though she had her book out during Goodwitch's speech, instead she was watching Pyrrha approach the stage. She was conflicted – the tension around her eyes and the firm line her lips formed told me that. She too, was intimidated by the so-called 'Invincible Girl' then?

Yang – her brow furrowed and her lip between her teeth – and even Weiss – her shoulders were _too _straight and her chin _too _rigid. They were intimidated by this girl. All of them.

That would not do. Untouchable girl or not, that _would not_ do.

"Mr Melkweg," Goodwitch said after I stood. She smiled a small smile. A pleased smile. "Thank you for volunteering."

* * *

**A/N: **Hope you're ready for a kick ass fight next time. I know I am!

I'm excited in general right now. We're nearing the end of canon season one, another 2-3 chapters and I'll be into season two material and then I _really _start to branch out. I'm still on my two week update schedule because real life doesn't want to cooperate with my muse, but hopefully that'll change in the next month or two…

To mah reviewas!

**Guest: **REWBY is a better spelling over RWEBY, I agree, but when I first started writing this fic I thought pairing letters were always together in team names… by the time I learned otherwise, it was too late!

**Unfocused Brain: **I know right. Found out it's a meniscus tear and a minor tear in my ACL too…fun times ahead for me .

**BionicKid: **Sooner than you might think… given how slow paced this fic is, though, I should probably hold my tongue haha. White Fang will certainly be showing up in the next half dozen chapters though, that much I know for certain. Now whether or not RWEBY _knows _they're White Fang (or in cahoots with them) is another matter entirely…

**DasMac: **I like those thoughts. Admittedly I hadn't put much thought into _what _they'd ask beyond "What the hell?!" but you've given me some nice ideas. Flavor text is always fun to write and it makes for great character depth. Thanks and thanks doubly for the review!

**Jack Hunter**: Thanks for your interest and for your reviews. Reader reactions to what I write go a long way in helping me gauge what plot points stuck with you and which ones missed entirely… thanks again! And I think you described Enten perfectly when you said he wasn't being intentionally evil, instead he's just something of an anti-hero. Well said!

**To everyone: **Thank you for reviews – even a short 'good chapter' is an uplifting message to read so I appreciate each of you taking the time to send me a message. You guys rock!

Until next time.

-Phailen


	21. Chapter 21

_Week 15 – Dueling Hall_

It was a deadened silence that followed me from the stands. My teammates offered me tentative smiles and whispered words of encouragement but my other classmates only watched, dully expectant looks on their faces. They knew what would happen, they'd seen it happen nine times before, I was just another challenger. Just another loser. Pyrrha would win. She wouldn't be touched.

Routine.

I was not one to give up so easily but then, neither were Pyrrha's previous opponents. Every student went into the duel with a defiant look in their eyes, the will to win, determination etched into every hard line of their expression. They went into the duel confident and always, _always _left it mad and embarrassed. It earned the redhead more than her fair share of jealousy, of anger. The teenage ego was fragile, I'd said it before and I'd keep saying it until I was blue in the face – it was a fragile, fragile thing.

Luckily, I was not so delicate.

I knew the odds I faced here. I knew defeat was possible. I knew exactly what my chances were. I was walking into this duel just the same as every other student – confident, defiant and determined – and, if history were to repeat itself, I would be walking away from this duel dejected and downtrodden in about five minutes.

But that was the difference. That was what set me apart from my classmates. They only lived in the present. They lived in the here and the now, in the moment. They dwelt on their confidence, on their drive, and used it to convince themselves they would get through their duel with Pyrrha Nikos, the Invincible Girl, without even putting so much as a single thought to the duel itself. They hoped. They dreamed. They failed.

They did not see.

But I did. Forethought was my shield just as much as Ultimatum. Strategy and a calm mind would get me through this. Not just determination. Not just confidence. I needed my wits about me. I needed to see what my classmates could not.

I observed.

Pyrrha was angry. The furrow to her brow and the tightness of her lips suggested that she was still quite mad at me and I knew that to be true. I would have to watch for ways to use that against her – if my fight with Neo was any indication, I was something of a frustrating opponent to face.

Was that a good thing, or a bad thing? And for that matter… what did that say about my personality?

A slight upturn of my lips signaled my amusement and I saw my redheaded opponent's face twist into a frown. Easier than I expected.

I winked at her, watching, satisfied, as her frown deepened.

Such a fragile, _fragile_ thing. I hurt one of her friends and she could _not stand it_.

"Mr. Melkweg," Goodwitch intoned as I drew near the dueling stage itself. "Need I remind you that there will be absolutely no lethal attacks allowed?"

She was eying the bullets on my waist, a wry smile on her face. If she knew anything about recoil then she knew I couldn't fire them myself – not without tossing myself about the stage like a ragdoll. Not only that, but did she _really _think I'd fire something like that inside in the first place?

No matter – the bullets were only a hindrance in this duel anyway. Dead weight. They were placed against the base of the stands in short order.

I returned to the center of the stage and drew even with Pyrrha slowly, with a measured step that was far more sluggish than my normal gait. The girl's eyes never left me; hard, confident and unyielding. Pyrrha Nikos in a nutshell. This girl was dangerous, she was experienced, she was _good _at what she did.

A deep breath settled my nerves – her reputation and the skills by which she earned it could not be discounted here. I would not blind myself to the threat she presented, I would not naively hope that I would _somehow _win. I needed a plan. A course of action. Getting her angry was a good start but that was only half of the equation. The rest relied on me.

I came to this dueling stage just as confident and hopeful as my classmates. The difference, I knew, would be the manner in which I left it.

Victorious or defeated – I did not know and I was not stupid enough to assume I would win this duel. I did not know, but I _did _know that was going to leave my mark. I would not just be another name under Pyrrha Nikos' foot. My teammates would not fall prey to this girl's reputation any longer. _That_ was my goal. Not winning. Winning was an afterthought. I needed to show the girls that _no one _was invincible.

"Now," Goodwitch started, eying us both, "your Aura meters have appeared overhead. Again, when you hear the bell chime you are to stop _immediately_. Am I understood?"

The same speech. The same rules. She seemed more intense this time, though – perhaps she sensed the latent animosity that Pyrrha and I shared?

"You got it," I muttered, keeping my attention on the Pyrrha. She was staring me down, trying to either intimidate me or simply express her anger. Given who this was and her history in dueling tournaments, I was more than willing to bet it was the former. She was not simple enough to throw angry glares around without reason.

That was something Winchester and his merry band of juvenile bullies would do.

I offered her a smile and quirked one of my eyebrows. Play a fool – maybe it would get her going enough to get her off balance.

But it would never be so simple. She only imitated me, offering up an unimpressed arch of her own eyebrows.

A scoff escaped me. So be it, then. I expected her to be able to control herself; her earlier slip up must have been influenced by her surprise at seeing me volunteer.

"The duel will begin when-"

I forced Goodwitch's voice from my mind and closed my eyes. My breathing slowed, my muscles relaxed, my head drooped.

Pyrrha Nikos.

She was called the Invincible Girl because she had never been touched in a regulation tournament duel. The Grimm managed to hit her so I knew that it could be done, but never before had a human or a faunus managed to wound her. There was something there, a difference that I was missing, I knew that, but comparing the Grimm to humans and faunus was too general to draw any useful information from. They were too different. Too many possibilities.

I knew the Grimm either had something that we did not or lacked something that we possessed... Aura, perhaps? They had no Aura – maybe that was how Pyrrha avoided attacks? By influencing Aura in the same way I did, just more precisely.

Speculation, useful when one was not _in _a duel. I'd have to return to that train of thought later.

What did I _know? _What were the _facts?_

Pyrrha held her friends close, precious few as they were. I knew from listening to Ruby that the red headed girl was lonely in her fame and awkward in her social interactions because of it. And hearing _Ruby _mention that… well, it likely meant Miss. Nikos had a lot of trouble interacting with her classmates. Or rather, her classmates had trouble interacting with _her_. Pyrrha Nikos, not the Invincible Girl. It was similar to Weiss in how some treated her as the Schnee heiress rather than a girl all her own. Something I knew the white haired girl loathed.

A comparison. That could be used. Some of Weiss' weaknesses and shortcomings might apply to this redhead.

The Schnee heiress, for one, was sensitive about familial matters. She did not like to speak of her home life, of her family. That topic was the easiest way to offend her; she had to be almost… eased into the subject and I had to pick my words carefully thereafter.

It was the source of her reputation, the Schnee family. Perhaps Pyrrha's reputation was her Achilles' heel then? A source of resentment – something that set her apart from the rest of the students here…

"Did those tournaments just fold to you?"

Her eyes narrowed and I saw a flicker of doubt pass over her expression in the way her brow slackened and her lips curled downward. It was gone a short moment later, but the damage was done – she was confused.

"Your opponents. The source of your fame… the reason our classmates ostracize you..."

Her nostrils flared. "They gave it their all and every single one of them were better fighters than you could ever hope to be, backstabber."

"Harsh words," I said, grinning. Petty insults and an attempt to damage my pride. I was not fragile. I knew what I was. A mixture of cynicism and realism combined with a ruthless drive to protect those important to me. Insults… please. It was a poor attempt. "I showed him how to use his shield – why didn't you? He needed you-"

"Enough," she spat, her chest heaving. She turned thereafter to our proctor. "Professor Goodwitch, can we please begin?"

The blonde eyed us both before responding: "Very well. Mr. Melkweg, are you quite finished?"

"I'm ready."

"Then," she started, removing herself from the stage. Once she was at a safe distance, she spoke again. "_Begin!"_

Ultimatum rose up in front of me, a defiant wall of unyielding metal, as Pyrrha darted forward. The girl transformed her weapon into a gun and I saw her raise it just as my shield blocked my view of her. Bullets immediately starting impacting my weapon and they bounced, harmless, to the ground, dejected and useless in the face of Ultimatum.

I heard her approach even as she fired and given every single shot hit my shield, I allowed myself a moment of admiration. The girl _was _good. Granted, my shield was very, very _large _but keeping a steady hand while moving at the pace she was certainly wasn't easy.

The bullets stopped and I collapsed Ultimatum just in time to spot her sword inches from my face. I lurched backward, stumbling in my haste to avoid the blow – _'Fast!' _– and she pressed her advantage. A javelin lanced out at my off-shoulder but I turned, presenting my right side – the side with Ultimatum – to the girl. She pulled her lance back just as I lowered my shoulder and rushed forward.

Pyrrha absorbed my attack with her shield, though, and used my momentum to spin herself behind me.

"Shit," I muttered even as I felt her sword score a glancing blow across my shoulders. Ultimatum was quickly brought to bear again as I faced her, just in time to keep her from landing another hit. A shift of my arm blocked another blow as I set my feet under me. Then, I pushed her away from me and lashed out with my left hand, sending a wave of Aura at the girl.

She ducked behind her shield even as I rushed forward, my own shield held in front of me. I heard two more bullets impact the shield in the time it took me to cross ten feet and once I reached her I only just managed to glimpse her disappearing around the corner of my shield.

'_Behind me again.'_

I spun, ducking this time, and allowed myself a grin when I spotted her sword passing harmlessly over my head. Ultimatum collapsed and I thrust my right arm at the girl's unprotected side, it impacted-

No! It missed!

I grit my teeth and watched the girl dart away from my attack, lunging to the side and immediately bringing her damnable gun to bear again. I expanded my shield and hid behind it as I approached, wincing when one of the bullets made it through my defense before I was set.

Frustration that started to gather at the edges of my mind was ruthlessly pushed away. This was the Invincible Girl. She earned that name. It wasn't going to be as easy as anticipating an attack and countering.

The rain of bullets stopped and a shadow passed over my eyes – I was facing the dueling hall's lights, Suhoca would be displeased. She was above me then. I raised Ultimatum, ready to absorb-

But when I lifted the shield, I saw Pyrrha in front-

'_Shit!'_

She lashed out with her sword and landed a solid blow on my midsection and another javelin hit on my thigh as I withdrew, cursing under my breath. The shadow over my head- how-

Her shield. Damnit!

It was no longer on her arm. She must have thrown it when I drew close to fool me into thinking she was above me and it worked. It worked flawlessly.

'_Damnit.'_

The redhead reached up and caught the shield in question – '_Just how did that return to her? …Too many questions!'_ – so I took the momentary lull in combat to gather my thoughts. I needed it, I knew.

I was charging into this like my classmates – recklessly and without any forethought. What happened to my plan? To my wit? I needed to regain that and I needed to _keep _it… But still, I could see why Pyrrha's previous opponents ended up charging at her like mindless berserkers. Coming so close to hitting her, only to be disappointed every time was frustrating – and I'd only launched three failed attacks thus far.

A deep breath expelled the tension from my face and the anger from my mind. Time to focus.

I made her angry before the duel – that was good. She was calm and collected now, though. The familiarity of dominating her opponents likely helped to soothe her nerves. I'd have to take care of that… easy enough.

What followed was the hard part – how could I get around her ironclad defense? Her agility?

I could think of two things immediately. The first was attempting to hit her from different angles and the second was to force her into the air. The former was a priority because I needed to figure out if she was more vulnerable from a certain angle and the latter was a priority because _everyone _was more vulnerable in the air.

Pyrrha finished replacing her shield and wasted no time in rushing me. She was nearly twenty feet from me, though…

"No wonder people hate you," I muttered when she drew near. Ultimatum blocked a sword blow and a wickedly fast follow-up javelin jab when I put my shield in between us. "They just have to fight you to understand."

She scoffed even as she tried to hook the edge of her weapon on my shield. It caught. Fool.

"Trait-" she started as she pulled back.

I was heavier than she was, though. I had a small height advantage and I certainly had a strength advantage over the Invincible Girl. She was about to learn that the hard way.

I lurched backward, pulling Ultimatum and all my weight with me. My eyes caught the redhead being taken along for the ride before she disappeared from view, behind my shield's girth. She was close. Too close. I thrust my shield out at her, right where her face would be hurtling toward me-

Movement from below my weapon caught my eye and I saw Pyrrha appear there, having _somehow _ducked under the shield. Did I misjudge her distance? Did I not swing far enough? How did I not connect-

A sinking feeling enveloped me when I realized that I was horribly off balance now, having somehow over compensated with the shield slam. I got a leg under my weight – roughly stopped my momentum and keeping me upright – then heaved my shield at the girl, now at my side. This time I knew exactly where she was. This time I knew exactly how hard and how far to throw my arm-

My attack met nothing but air – _How?! _– and I stumbled backward, having set my stance too wide and lacking a countering force to my momentum. Pyrrha, somehow, managed to avoid my shield while keeping herself in range to use her javelin. The new stinging pain in my upper thigh was proof of that.

I was not given a chance to regain my composure. My opponent hounded me relentlessly as I backpedaled, messily using Ultimatum to block the worst of her onslaught. Still, several glancing blows made it by my defenses before I could buffet the ground with my Aura, forcing the girl away from me and finally, _finally _allowing me a chance to catch my breath.

Something wasn't right here. I knew I was relatively new to using Ultimatum in combat but misjudging distances like that not once, not even twice, but _three times _was something I knew I was too experienced to do.

And still, it happened.

Did her Semblance mess with my perception?

No. No, my first attack was blocked with her shield. It was the follow up attacks that were avoided with a frustrating amount of ease.

Maybe the first attack was the trigger? Maybe she had to touch the object in question to throw off my coordination? Were that true then-

I threw myself backward just as Pyrrha unleashed a salvo of ammo at my former position. Ultimatum aligned with my arm as I landed and quickly spat an Aura Bullet at the girl.

Her eyes widened and she ducked behind her shield, absorbing the force-

Not my perception then. Were she messing with my coordination then that attack would never have come close to her. That left me the question: why? Why did she block my first attack when she easily avoided all the others? What was different about it? Why not avoid the Aura Bullet too?

Something wasn't right here. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to think-

Pyrrha reached me with her javelin outstretched and I slapped the attack away with my shield. Quickly, I thrust my left arm forward in a jab and she blocked my fist with her shield – '_Why?'_ – before following up with a shield slam of her own. I managed to duck under the attack – agility was not my specialty – only to find her sword flying at my neck. It clanged harmlessly off of Ultimatum's shoulder armor when I turned into the blow and I immediately shoulder checked-

My momentum was directed downward. Down into the ground _of its own accord because I did not __**dive**__. _Like gravity spontaneously decided to fuck me over! How was this happening? It was like an outside force pressing down upon my shoulder-

I rolled with my new motion, coming up behind the girl just as she turned to face me, her javelin already rocketing toward my midsection. It too was deflected by Ultimatum when I presented my right side to the girl. This time, though, instead of trying to shoulder check her again, I hopped back and aligned my shield with my arm. Ultimatum shifted dangerously, expanding into its shield form.

'_Block this.'_

An Aura Bullet roared forth, leaving behind a small _boom _when it left the weapon. It crossed the short distance between myself and Pyrrha almost instantly and the girl dropped to the ground in a rush. She avoided my attack – _again _– but left herself incredibly vulnerable.

Ultimatum still aligned with my arm, I jumped forward and slammed the tip of the shield into her gut-

My arm moved. Not by my doing but by that same outside force. Instead of impacting the girl, Ultimatum hit the ground next to her. Hard.

Pyrrha regained her feet even as I stumbled backward, dazed from the jarring impact with the dueling stage's floor. Quickly, I thrust out my left arm in a desperate jab even as my shield collapsed. She blocked the attack with her own shield and I sent my right arm at her as soon as she ducked behind the object. It was headed for her shoulder-

But it never landed. Again. _Again_, it was redirected into the ground and I was sent into an uncontrolled fall. I received a blow to my back for my troubles and another to my thigh before I was able to buffet the ground with my Aura – a costly defense I tried to avoid using – and regain my feet.

Pyrrha jumped away and started to circle me, quickly and nimbly reloading her rifle as she did. One eye was always kept on me. That was fine.

_Enten: 63%. Pyrrha: 100%._

She was controlling me. I knew she was to blame for my arm, for its disobedience. It was not my coordination that was off else my left handed attacks would have missed and my Aura Bullets would have went wide – but they did not. It was only Ultimatum. Only my weapon.

But no! It wasn't my weapon – my weapon enabled me to shoot Aura Bullets and those never faltered in their accuracy. It was only my melee attacks. Perhaps she had a range on her… abilities? But that didn't explain my left arm – why was it able to hit her? Why wasn't it just as inaccurate as my right arm? My melee range theory was suddenly disproven so then-

The metal. It must be the metal. I could think of no other way she was controlling my movements because if it effected melee attacks in general then her ability would misdirect both my left and my right handed attacks. But it did not. It only appeared to target my attacks made with Ultimatum.

Polarity. Magnetism. It must be. She must control- That must be how she was able to make her shield return to her arm with such precision! No one could accurately throw a shield, taking into account a moving, living target, and manage to have it bounce back perfectly every single time. It must be!

And what a Semblance that was. The girl was smart with it too. She used it subtly, she used it to minutely misdirect. To an outside observer, it only looked like her opponents were missing by inches. It was only when one faced her that they could notice anything amiss and even that was difficult to do. I was certain that the only way I noticed anything wrong at all was because I was attacking with my arm. Not with a weapon or a projectile but my own arm. I sensed and felt every change and forceful influence on it because it was _me_.

Yang should have felt it too, for that matter. I'd have to talk to her about keeping her mind in battle later. Her match with Pyrrha turned the blonde into a berserker by the time it was over. Never had I seen the normally laid back girl so frustrated.

I released a breath. Calm. Neutral. I had a plan now. A theory. The next step: testing it.

A peace of mind settled over me – the first since the duel started – and I fingered the release trigger on Ultimatum's gauntlet. I needed to do this in such a way to catch her off guard. She was a skilled fighter and an able duelist even without her Semblance – and that was working with the assumption that her Semblance was, in fact, polarity.

Risky, but I had no choice. Either I could go on allowing my attacks to miss, or I could do something about it.

Fortune favored the bold.

I charged forward and the redhead ceased her efforts to reload her rifle when she saw the movement. She unleashed a salvo of bullets at me that I met head-on with Ultimatum. The shield absorbed the projectiles readily and I launched myself into the air when I drew close to the girl. My finger depressed the release button and immediately I heard the heavy grinding of metal and three displeased _clacks_ when the weapon disconnected itself from my leather armor.

Immediately, I started to become unbalanced with the now unsecured weight of the shield pulling me toward the ground – that was fine. I let the shield fall and kicked off of it for good measure, directing the large hunk of metal toward my opponent.

I heard her shout in dismay and saw her jump to the side – apparently there was a weight limit to the metal she could influence? Or maybe she just saw moving as an easier option? No matter.

My feet touched down behind her and I spun to face her just as she turned to face me. Her eyes were slightly wider than normal.

A good sign.

She lashed out with her sword and I absorbed most of the blow with my leather armor. It cut into the material but it blunted the blow sufficiently enough that I barely felt anything from it.

My right fist was launched forward and promptly redirected by the startled girl's shield; her surprise didn't keep her from attacking with her sword again, though.

I rolled under the blow, easily avoiding it given I didn't have Ultimatum's weight slowing me down, and came up on her left side. Unfortunately, her shield was impeding me but that was alright. I reached out and tried to grasp the object but she recoiled before my fingers had a chance touch it. A blast of my Aura rushed to greet her instead, impacting her shield and unbalancing her. I promptly threw my leg out and wasted no time in unleashing another burst of Aura. She grunted and hopped into the air; it was a controlled motion that allowed her to rotate herself to face me.

Still, she was airborne. Short as her time off the ground may be, she no longer had her feet under her. She no longer had any metal to influence either. The advantage, for the first time in the match, was mine.

My right cross was blocked with her shield. The elbow followed with another impact on her shield and she was sent stumbling backward just as she landed. I easily avoided her return spear thrust and managed to grip the edge of her shield as my right arm retreated. I pulled it away from her body just as my left arm, enhanced with my Semblance, thundered forward.

The air being forced from her lungs was like music to my ears.

My fist dug into her gut and the force behind the punch sent her flying across the stage. Were I more vane, I might have stopped and gloated but I had no time to marvel at my accomplishment; I needed to prove something here. I was behind – _54% _to _83%_ \- and I needed to push my advantage.

She pushed herself up to her hands and knees when I started to charge her. The girl's face was red and I knew at least part of it was dismay. The first blow she'd ever taken and it was received from someone she utterly hated. That couldn't be easy to deal with.

A spat curse left her lips as she forced herself to her feet, facing me with a deep scowl on her lips.

Such a fragile, fragile thing.

I opened with a drop kick, something I rarely did but given the redhead had only just regained her feet and the increased power the attack allowed me, I thought it worth the risk. Her shield disappointed me though; she used it to redirect my attack into the ground and I was forced to absorb another blow from her sword with my leather armor. My feet set themselves just as the girl launched a jab with her javelin at my midsection but I knocked it away and sent three quick jabs of my own at her torso. The first managed to clip her shoulder but the other two were blocked by her shield.

'_This won't do,' _I realized as I jumped away from her. She was too dangerous with her sword and shield and I – almost completely unarmed – would not be able to face her.

A quick roll to the side allowed me to avoid her latest salvo of bullets and as I came up my foot hit something, very nearly sending me sprawling.

'_Ultimatum.'_

The massive barrel down the center of the shield was originally meant to be a charging column for Ruby's scythe and we designed it to accommodate weaponry of at least that size. It was still untested… but it _did _having a locking mechanism to keep in place anything sheathed-

I lurched forward, avoiding Pyrrha's javelin as it hurtled by my head by mere inches.

'_Pretty sure that was lethal, Professor.'_

Quickly, I set my feet and came up just in time take the brunt of a shield slam on my armor. My hand reflexly grasped the edge of the shield just as the crowd of students burst into nervous titters. They'd been doing it since I hurled Pyrrha across-

Pain erupted in my right arm in a searing line. I glanced at it just in time to find Pyrrha grasping her weapon, fresh with my blood. My next observation came as she shoved me over Ultimatum: before she was resolute and determined, but now she was only angry. It showed in the way her javelin followed my descent to the ground, intent on skewering me through.

She wanted to play for keeps – so be it.

My Aura flared and came to life, pulsating through my legs and right into Ultimatum where it sat, ready and waiting. The shield hummed and glowed a bright blue for an instant before the Aura I pushed into it erupted out of its channels. It found the redhead easily, overextended as she was, and lifted her into the air just as I landed on the ground.

Normally we would have been at a stalemate – her in the air and I on the ground. We both needed time to recover. Unfortunately for the redhead, one of the very first things Yang and I learned in our martial arts lessons was how to fall.

The ground was a dangerous spot to be in, after all. Being on your back presented openings for your enemies and left you without a great many options of counter attacking. It was just about as bad as being airborne.

So we learned to minimize the damage it could do.

The second my legs hit Ultimatum, the very instant I realized I was going to end up on the ground, I started moving. My lower extremities retreated as soon as they were done channeling my power and my arms moved to both absorb some of my momentum and redirect it into my recovery.

I rolled with the fall, propelling myself into a backwards somersault. I got my feet under me just as Pyrrha began her descent back to the ground.

My Aura launched me at the girl as she awkwardly landed on her feet and well before she could fully hide behind her shield. My arm immediately darted out and grabbed her flailing wrist, jerking her right into my waiting knee. She crumpled around the blow at her midsection and I used her breathless state to my advantage: I twisted her wrist, knocking her sword from her hand the second her fingers were loose enough.

"Just evening the playing field," I muttered, hopping away when she lashed out blindly with her shield. Her blade was quickly inserted into Ultimatum's barrel and the locked mechanism was engaged shortly thereafter. "You understand."

Pyrrha huffed and straightened, visibly composing herself. Her eyes tracked my movements intently as I stood again and cracked my knuckles.

_Enten: 39%. Pyrrha: 64%._

A wordless roar tore from lips as I charged this time and the girl, a grim look on her face, raised her shield. My first blow was absorbed and I slid around the follow up shield slam. Now within her guard, I launched a left jab at her chin that the girl redirected away from her face. The edge of her shield nearly caught me on the side of my head but I ducked under it and used the opportunity to land a solid blow on her side.

Or I would have, had she not jumped away. Even without her control over metal, the girl was a formidable opponent.

Undeterred, I launched myself after her.

She hurled her shield at my head and I rolled under it; the girl did not call the object back, surprisingly enough. Instead, she chose to meet my charge half way, yelling a wordless challenge that I matched with one of my own.

She fired two quick punches at my head that I ducked under and my retaliatory elbow was redirected toward the ground, throwing me horribly off balance. Her kick caught me in the side as I was half way through my roll and sent me sprawling across the stage.

When I regained my feet, I saw she was darting toward Ultimatum.

'_Shit.'_

The Aura cords weren't strong enough to resist the girl trying to forcefully remove her weapon. They were made that way on purpose, actually, so that Ultimatum never held captive any weapons on the battlefield due to some kind of malfunction.

A glint of gold on the ground caught my attention – her shield! It was close.

Pyrrha reached my shield just as I reached hers. My fingers closed around the edge of the metal and I hurled the object as hard as I could at the redhead – my aim was not so precise as hers, but…

She pulled her sword free just as her shield collided with the back of her shoulder blades. I launched myself at the girl even as she staggered forward, a fresh red line visible on the skin of her back. She caught herself on Ultimatum but by the time she straightened, it was too late.

My fist caught her in the side and, unprepared for the blow as she was, the redhead crumpled around it. I was quick to launch my leg at the back of her knees and managed to catch her before she could jump away. Now down to a knee and faced away from her opponent, the girl was unable to stop my right fist from colliding with her chin. The Aura-laced blow tossed her away bodily.

The advantage was mine. With an opponent like Pyrrha Nikos, I could never be certain that the advantage would _stay _mine either. I needed to press this.

My feet touched down on the ground behind her just as she got her knees under her weight. I was forced to avoid her mule-kick almost immediately and her other leg struck out expertly, impacting my knee and knocking me from my feet. I rolled with my fall and managed to avoid a swipe of the girl's sword in doing so. She threw herself at me even as I came up to a knee and-

_Clang!_

My head was rocked forward when something hit the back of my head and I found myself incredibly dazed. Blearily, I saw the girl catch her shield just before she reached me.

'_Damnit all.'_

I quickly threw my right arm forward and launched enough Aura at the girl to toss her away from me. It was a costly defense but I needed to compose myself desperately because my eyes were watering and I was seeing two of her and that was _dangerous_.

A golden glint drew my attention back to the match and I realized Pyrrha's javelin was hurtling-

I dove to the ground roughly, leaving myself breathless but avoiding the weapon entirely. Quickly, I pushed myself back up because I knew she would push-

She landed in front of me and lashed out with her shield. I accepted the blow on my leather armor and threw myself at the girl, catching her around the midsection and bringing us both to the ground. My head was pounding and my vision was only just starting to focus but I could see a pale blob that I _knew _was her face.

It was enough.

I kept my right arm in between my head and her shield and leveraged myself up over the girl. My left arm snapped out at her skull and I must have hit _something _vulnerable because her struggles died down momentarily. Just long enough for me to straddle the girl's midsection and throw my right arm down.

My fist missed, impacting the floor instead and I received an elbow to the gut for my troubles. The blow forced the air from my lungs and I hunched over; I decided to move with my momentum and threw my head down at Pyrrha's.

My forehead impacted what I thought was the girl's cheek and I heard her head rock back into the dueling hall floor. I blinked and finally, _finally _managed to focus my eyes just long enough to see the girl blink several times, clearly dazed.

'_Almost done. Almost there.'_

I cocked my right arm back and gathered as much Aura as I dared into it. Our eyes met briefly and hers widened minutely just as I threw my weight behind my fist. Her left hand fell to her side and my right hit her-

_Schlick!_

Pain. _Pain. __**Pain! **_It was _agonizing_ in nature and _brutally_ distracting in intensity as it erupted in my left shoulder. The joint was on fire – it burned, it hurt, it was like something was clawing-

"Shit!"

I faintly heard the bell chime just as I threw myself off of the girl. My left shoulder hit the ground-

My vision flashed dangerously and every light was suddenly blinding. I blinked several times, my right arm moved – because I _could not move my left! _– and started prodding-

Hands landed on me. Hands that were not mine! They pulled and tugged, grasping my right arm and forcing it down, away from my shoulder-

My shoulder! Every twitch of my body. Every beat of my heart pumped what could only be liquid throbbing agony and suffering into my skull. My head was pounding and with every beat I could feel my shoulder more and more and more and more-

"-weg. Mr. Melkweg, _please._ Control yourself."

That was Goodwitch. Were these her hands? Were they keeping me contained- I _loathed _being controlled. Being contained. I would _not _be controlled! I made my own decisions. _No one _made them for me and she was making them-

Something- a hand – impacted my face and my head was whipped to the side. But I was on the ground, how could- no, no I was on my knees now… When did I…?

"-escort your teammate to the medical room and return here _promptly_. You still have duels to complete."

Goodwitch again. The hands – hers, they must be – disappeared and my right arm immediately reached up to my shoulder.

"Woah there big guy," Yang's voice said, somewhere in front of me. "I don't think you want to touch that… Looks kinda painful."

"I can't believe she _did _that," Ruby hissed from somewhere on my side. I felt someone appear under my right arm and start to urge me into a standing position. I complied, more focused on blocking out the pounding migraine settling over me and the agony in my shoulder and searing pain on my right arm- "Just _look _at him! He was already delirious and… and… and his shoulder! And his head!"

"Yeah, well, I think it's safe to say Enten won," Yang muttered from behind me now.

"Won what," I asked. Or tried, anyway. It came out as a slurred sentence that sounded more like: 'wurwat'.

"Uhh," Ruby said and I tried to swivel my head around to see her but found that the very act of utilizing the muscles in my neck reignited the pain emanating from my shoulder. My feet failed me and whomever was under my right arm was nearly taken to the ground with me. It was only Yang's – was that Yang? – hands on my side that kept me upright.

"The duel," Weiss muttered from behind me. "She means the duel… Enten, I… We need to take this out."

"We can't take it out," Ruby exclaimed even as Blake – presumably – got me moving again. I could hear her breathing start to get heavier… made sense, considering I thought we just moved up a flight of stairs. My vision was… foggy still and my shoulder – _pain, agony! _– made it hard to focus on anything for more than a few-

"Too deep," the cat faunus muttered. "Blood loss."

"What's in my shoulder," I said and this time it almost sounded like the sentence I intended it to be. Only a few slurred syllables… surely close enough to understand.

"Uhh," Yang grunted. "Well… it's… kind of a sword. I mean, it's like a sword and a spear together." She paused and silence briefly descended over the group. "I think."

"It's Pyrrha's weapon," Weiss stated and I _knew _I heard something in her voice… if only I weren't so disoriented! "She… did _something _and it flew at you when… when…"

Silence again fell over us and I noticed that we were out in Beacon's hallways now. Blobs – for my vision _refused _to focus beyond about five feet – immediately started moving out of our way. I could only assume they were my fellow students; the way all conversation died out with RWEBY's progress down the hall led me to the assumption that I looked _bad_.

It was an unnerving silence that followed me, this time.

"Did I win, at least," I muttered later, once I grew tired of the awkward lack of conversation. I thought we were near the medical room.

It took them a few seconds to respond, I could only assume they were trying to filter-

"Yeah," Ruby said at length. "You got Pyrrha right before she… uhh…"

"Speared me," I prompted.

My leader choked on her spit so Weiss continued for her.

"Yes… right before… _that_. You hit her and she went limp and then Goodwitch was running…"

My mind was clear enough now that I could sense some unease in her voice. Some uncertainty. And ffom her point of view, I could understand that. Apparently there was a spear-sword thing stuck in my shoulder deep enough to poke through the other side and my team just watched that happen. They probably thought I was going to die. Hell, another few inches into my torso and I just might've.

"I'm fine," I said, straightening my back slightly. My shoulder immediately and fiercely protested the movement but if it would soothe their nerves then I'd just have to grit my teeth and bear it.

"Not fine," Blake muttered. The girl's fingers tightened around my right arm – the one she was using to support me. "Stop pretending."

"I'm n-"

"Yes you are," Weiss inserted. "You almost-" She swallowed. "You almost _died _and now you're _not _fine and I know you're just telling us you are to make us feel better…"

She trailed off into silence and I heard her take in a shaky breath.

"I'm gonna give Pyrrha such an earful," Ruby muttered crossly. "It was bad enough when the duel kept going after she tried to throw her spear at your head _twice_ and then the shield hit you… and then…"

"I might not be fine now," I allowed when the girl trailed off. We turned a corner and the medical room's doors came into view. They stood out against Beacon's otherwise grand, luxurious interior in the way they were colored a plain white with red crosses on them. Even with my vision acting up, I could recognize them. "But I will be. I can't- urk-"

My shoulder twitched and I screwed my eyes shut when the light suddenly became _extremely _bright. The blinding pain overtook me suddenly and ruthlessly and the girls' panicked voices were lost to me as the migraine and the weapon in my shoulder stole all of my conscious thoughts away. It lasted for what felt like several minutes and by the end of the episode I was left breathless and utterly exhausted. Still, as soon as the worst had passed, I tried to compose myself.

"I'm alright. I'm fine," I muttered tiredly when I heard Weiss and Blake fussing. Yang was hovering over my shoulder with an uncertain look on her face, like she wanted to help but didn't know how. "Just… accidentally moved my shoulder."

The blonde shook her head, grabbing me around my waist and, together with Blake, managed to help me off the ground – apparently I'd collapsed during the episode.

"Come on," she muttered. "We're there now."

And indeed we were. The medical room's doors were just in front of us now and behind them I knew sleep awaited me.

And after that duel, I was more than ready to sleep.

I knew I couldn't, though. Not until I convinced the rest of my team that I would be alright. There was no doubt in my mind that they would voluntarily skip dueling class to make certain I was on the path to recovery.

A sigh escaped me as I was guided into the medical room.

Somehow, I knew sleep was a long way off.

* * *

**A/N: **Hello again readers! Hope you enjoyed the most recent chapter of Reiteration because I certainly enjoyed writing it! Some parts were harder than others… but all in all, I'm happy with how it turned out.

(01/26/2016) Revised.

Now, I've got one quick announcement for you:

The next chapter will be from _another RWEBY member's PoV_! No, I'm not telling you who but I will let you know that it's not Ruby… She had her time in the spotlight!

But, you know what… I can't keep secrets anyway. So, here you go:

* * *

"_Ugggh_," the girl groaned, slouching in her seat. "Can't we talk about this _later?_ Enten is about to fight Pyrrha!"

I turned back to the stage, watching the boy place the bandolier of truly _massive _bullets he carried around his shoulders against the stands. Honestly, boys and their toys.

"There is always time for etiquette, Ruby."

"There's always time for etiquette Ruby," the girl mocked under her breath.

I felt my nostrils flare but I managed to keep from looking at her. _Honestly_, this girl was going to put me in an early grave!

* * *

Did ya guess? Is it obvious yet?

So, that kinda-sorta-teaser aside, I've got some reviews to answer…

**Riero: **Hang no more and rest your tired arms! The chapter has arrived! Hope you like it and thanks for your review!

**Unfocused Brain: **You know there's something amusing about Enten riding around in a wagon as the rest of the team pulls him from target to target haha. Thanks for the review!

**Guest: **Glad you liked the shield and its name. I was trying to give it one that both portrayed its power and the responsibility that comes with it… Ultimatum fits nicely. And are you in my head? You worried Pyrrha might take it too far because of the Jaune thing and… Tada! Thanks for the review!

**Lucifer Daemon**: You touched pretty close to details of his Semblance that haven't come up yet but nothing quite so parasitic in nature. Still, that's a cool concept but one I think might be too overpowered (stealing someone's Semblance, for any time at all, could be devastating in team fights). Hope the fight was as unexpected as you hoped and thanks for you review!

**Guest numero dos: **Loner and asshole describe Enten pretty well haha, from the right perspective, anyway. Thanks for the review!

**Akio Blade: **You've definitely put a lot of thought into him. I'd suggest simplifying him or introducing his features/weapons/personality in portions. So readers don't get lost trying to keep track of everything he can do/all the weapons he has. As for writing the story: put yourself in his place, write reactions that work for him… even if they aren't 'good' actions. That's all part of making realistic characters; they won't always be pure of heart and if they are, they run the risk of being too mary-sue and predictable. Good luck writing and thanks for the review!

**Azariah Kyras: **Thank you for your kind words, first off. Best RWBY fic on the site is flattering. I made Enten to be realistic and realistically, he'll influence the world he's put into. I know what you mean when you say some OC/SI fics just coast along with the vanilla story – no changes or anything. I find that boring. You made an OC then placed it inside of a universe that previously had no such character… it's going to change! Slightly or drastically, it'll change!

Thank you to my other reviewers as well, you guys are awesome!

Till next time,

Phailen.


	22. Chapter 22

_Week 15 – Friday, dueling class – Weiss Schnee_

It was with a practiced step, graceful and delicate in its nature, that I followed my leader into Beacon's spacious, extravagant dueling hall. The room was one of many things within the school that reminded me of home – the grand staircases, the tall hallways and the tasteful interior design did so as well. The difference, I knew, was that here within Beacon's walls I was safe from nagging maids and disappointed stares. From awkward conversations with my blood relatives and the oppressive feeling of _always_ being watched.

Here, I was among my friends. My teammates. My classmates. All of them were better company than my family. My teammates were more my blood than my father could ever hope to be. And that was saying something, given I'd only been on team RWEBY for about four months. No, that man filled a different role in my life – that of a financial guardian. I appreciated all he did for me, of that I was certain, but there was no love left to lose between the two of us. His stories and warnings, all grave and foreboding, made sure of that.

Because scaring your two-year old daughter into staying inside her room for the night because _you _didn't want to put up with her by telling her-

I pulled in a deep breath and immediately rid myself of _that_ thought. Dwelling on the past would not get me anywhere… I learned that early in my life. Very early. Better to live in the present. In the future, even.

It was brighter.

"Don't look so sour," Enten's voice muttered mere _inches _from my ear.

I flinched away from him – because that was _my _personal space that he just deliberately invaded and I _knew _he knew better – and shot him an unimpressed stare. I felt the edge of my lips, despite my best efforts, curl ever-so minutely into a frown.

He grinned and winked at me before Yang pulled him back into their conversation. I was not sad to see him pulled away – that boy made it a hobby to try and get a rise out of me. I did not know why, either.

Well, no… I knew why he did it, I just disagreed. He felt I was too uptight when I was not alone among my teammates and that was somewhat true. I grew more distant among large crowds, just as he did. It was easier to stay quiet and aloof, safer too. I did it because I was trained to do it from a young age. Keeping up a cool façade was a habit that I could not, and would not, break. It was far too useful in keeping people at arm's length.

As far as why Enten did it, though, I could not say. He was rather tight lipped about his habits – not that he _had _them but the _whys_. _Why _he grew quiet among large crowds. _Why _he was able to draw conclusions out of what appeared to be thin air. _Why _he was so intent on surviving.

My lips started to curl downward again but this time I caught them before they could move. It wouldn't do to have my public face break. Not over something I could do nothing about, regardless of how much it still stung.

I trusted that boy with things I'd never told anyone before. He _knew _why I was reluctant to speak of or see my family. He _knew _what I went through as a child. He knew all of it… and still…

Ruby started _clomping _down the stairs in front of me and I only just suppressed the wince that threatened to travel up my spine. Honestly, would it kill the girl to walk less like a rampaging Beowulf and more like… like… a human being?

_My _feet touched down on the stairs quietly and, despite the fact that I was in heels and she was not, made far less of a racket than Ruby's boots. We may have similar taste in combat skirts, but in shoes?

_Never_ would I be caught dead in… in _work boots_ like those. Those were for commoners. Laborers. The fuanus. _I _actually cared about what I-

Another wince almost broke my composure when I heard Yang do the exact same thing as her sister. It left me surrounded by buffoons that didn't know how to walk _right_! It was like they thought they could go on stomping around in those abominations and never have it come back to haunt them! They didn't even know the half of it – had _I _done that when I was young, had I even _worn _boots like that…

I could scarcely stomach the thought of it. My father's socialite friends would stare and then he would scold me – not in public of course because he had to keep up appearances – until I started crying and then he'd send me to my room with a warning not to look out the window because the faunus could see me and _that _would make everything worse-

"Hey," Enten voice's said again, this time from what I thought was a respectable distance. His hand landed on my shoulder. "I betcha you'll move up in the class rankings today."

My brow furrowed but I followed his eyes to the display board. On it, the first years' records were currently displayed. Pyrrha Nikos' name appeared first, followed closely by _9-0_. Then Yang and Ye'lo, both with _8-1_. After that, my name appeared alongside Ruby's and several of our classmates.

_7-2_.

It was a respectable record but I was not pleased with it. Not while Yang and Ye'lo were ahead of me. Pyrrha was a given – she was called the 'Invincible Girl' for a reason – but I hoped to place second in the class eventually.

"That's unlikely," I responded as I placed myself on the bleacher seat. There was no back support but I kept my spine straight regardless. Slouching was for barbarians. And so was _plopping _down in seats, like Ruby had just done.

"Why's that," the boy asked, again pulling my attention away from my thoughts. He continued: "Pyrrha could lose this week, or both Yang and Ye'lo. Either one of those scenarios end with you in second, provided you win."

"Pyrrha won't lose," I said, nodding. He frowned. "She's not called the 'Invincible Girl' for nothing, Enten. She won the Mistral Tournament four years in a row and that's already a record. But she did it without being touched _even once_. Not only that but she graduated top-"

"Alright, alright. Pyrrha's good, I get it."

"Yes, well, I understand if you have some latent animosity for her, given how you two have clashed since…"

He grunted. "I don't have any hard feelings. She has a right to be angry, though."

"Yes. I think so too," I said. And it was true. What Enten did to Jaune was… well, it was brilliantly planned in such a way that if he never decided to take credit for it, it would probably have never come back to him. But the boy's honesty – a positive aspect of his personality, despite the trouble it got him into – essentially painted a target on his back. He was willing to sink to deception and sabotage to accomplish his goals but at the same time he would not lie to his team… He was a walking oxymoron.

But no. That wasn't right… Enten was not a boy. He was man. And _that _was something I still couldn't quite get my head around. Two lives… it made everything he did interesting. The quirks in his personality, the little things he did every day – now it all meant something.

Maybe he always ate his food groups together because that was how he learned in his past life? Maybe he always looked left when entering a room before right because of something in his first life?

It was interesting, his behavior. I often found myself trying to place where he learned the things he did, if he learned it on Remnant or… Earth.

It was interesting. _He _was interesting.

"Angry or not," the boy said, "Pyrrha _can _make mistakes. She's not perfect."

"She may as well be. It's more likely Yang and Ye'lo both lose _and _I win."

"Speak for yourself," the blonde herself scoffed from Enten's other side. She leaned across the boy, completely and utterly invading his-

"Yeah," Ruby exclaimed from my other side, leaning across _my _personal space-

I elbowed the girl away from me with a huff. My arms were quickly crossed and my chin raised; I looked straight ahead at the dueling stage. If she didn't want to practice proper etiquette then _I _didn't want to speak with her. Let her learn the hard way because I was certainly done trying to explain the finer details of conversation to her. I'd even tried to show her how to walk _at least _four different times and none of them ever stuck.

Hopeless. That's what Ruby was. Hopeless.

"We're too awesome to lose," the girl cheered in my ear, apparently oblivious-

Oh, who was I kidding? _Of course _she was oblivious… either that or she didn't care that I was mad at her. I could actually see that happening – Ruby was very much an upbeat girl. There wasn't much that got her down.

In any other situation it might have been admirable, but now?

"You're not too awesome to ignore your manners, Ruby," I scolded her. My finger almost started wagging of its own accord – a habit that I'd inherited from my maids – but I controlled myself. I knew how annoying that was.

The girl groaned dramatically. Her back actually _hunched_ over from-

"Sit up straight. I know it may seem unreasonable but appearances are imp-"

"Can't we talk about this later," Ruby whined, rolling her eyes. "Like, never?"

"There is always time for etiquette, Ruby."

"There's always time for etiquette Ruby," the girl mocked under her breath.

I felt my nostrils flare but I managed to keep from completely losing my composure. _Honestly_, this girl was going to put me in an early grave!

"She's right, Ruby," Enten volunteered from my side. I only just resisted the urge to say 'I told you so'. But he wasn't done: "A lot of people care about that kind of thing. It might not matter in this setting, but later you might have to sit and act differently to impress someone. Might as well practice now, you know?"

The girl sighed but relented in the face of the boy's explanation. She straightened her back – almost enough to be presentable but… baby steps. Now she just needed to keep her shoulders from drooping…

"Hey Weiss," Enten said before I could do anything more than open my mouth to help the younger girl. I turned _– back straight, shoulders up, hands folded, chin level, assure eye contact _– to face him.

He jerked his chin behind him, in Yang's direction. The blonde was on his other side, speaking with Blake. He didn't say anything, though… so… He wanted me to talk to her then? My eyes narrowed in thought.

His eyebrow arched and he nodded toward Ruby.

'_Whatever,' _I shrugged, giving up on understanding the boy's intentions. He either wanted me to speak with Yang – I had nothing urgent to converse with her about – or he wanted to speak to Ruby himself. I did not know why.

And my father said _women_ did not need words to communicate. I thought that was truer for Enten.

We switched spots and he engaged RWEBY's leader in conversation just as Professor Goodwitch took the stage. She started speaking in short order and despite my respect for the older huntress, I could not completely pay attention to her. It was often the exact same spiel every week, only a few words would vary. The themes of encouragement to do well, a reminder that we all represent Beacon-

"-semester is drawing to an end. Foreign students will begin arriving at the end of next week for the Vytal Festival-"

And the _Vytal Festival!_

It was my favorite time of year in Vale by far. Weeks of parties and celebrations… Simply _amazing _decorations and fireworks shows… There were _always_ plenty of balls and galas too! And that wasn't even considering the interesting people they brought to Vale either!

My father always held a gala in honor of the festival and he _always _knew the most intriguing people. Maybe I could convince Blake and Enten to attend with me? Blake would need to wear her bow, of course, but I doubted that would be a problem given she went everywhere with it anyway. She was right to hide her faunus traits – it made life easier for her to be considered human. Although she might not want to go, given the less-than-perfect relationship humans and the faunus shared. Perhaps it was for the best if she stay behind. I doubted Yang and Ruby would be interested either, much less be able to attend without embarrassing themselves – or me – but I guess I would have to invite them anyway.

All of them.

Social niceties were such a pain sometimes. But, no… that was mean. They were my friends. All of them were and despite some of Ruby and Yang's… _tendencies_… they would all be invited to attend.

"Given the tournament's size, only our best fighters will be allowed to compete," Goodwitch said. "The top third of this class will be put forward for the qualifying rounds and of those third, perhaps half _might_ advance to the tournament itself."

_Oh, the tournament!_

I would finally, _finally_ have a chance to compete! How could I have forgotten about that?! I spent so many years wishing and now it was finally happening! So many years watching and yearning and waiting… people would applaud _me _this year!

"Now, let us begin… Do we have any volunteers?"

This was my chance! No longer would I be forced to stand in the shadow of my family name. No one would recognize me because I was a Schnee, not by the end of the tournament… No, they would recognize me because I was _Weiss _Schnee. They would recognize me because of what _I _did. Not my grandfather. Not my family. Me. Just, _me_.

It was my dream to become famous in my own right. It was destiny, even. I would be part of the strongest, most popular team at Beacon and _I _would be the most stand-out member. We'd all be _great _friends and _everyone _would love us! Enten would have to reign in his efforts to keep RWEBY at the top and Ruby would have to learn how to act and Blake wouldn't be able to show her cat ears and Yang would have to learn some manners too… but it would happen! I _knew _it would!

My fingers twitched toward Myrtenaster's hilt-

"Miss. Nikos, thank you for volunteering."

I swallowed heavily. Pyrrha. Pyrrha Nikos. That name was always, _always _there to bring me back down to reality. She was so much better than… than everyone! How could I, Weiss Schnee, possibly stand out when the Invincible Girl was part of my class?

I couldn't. That's how! I thought I could. I thought I could beat her, back when my name was drawn to be her opponent. Back then I was still even with Yang as far as our records went; I knew the blonde lost to the red head but I thought I was different. I just had to keep my head, I just had to stay calm. My teammate lost her temper and it made her attacks predictable; that's how Pyrrha beat her, I told myself.

Such a fool.

I pulled my hand away from Myrtenaster. All I could hope for was second place. And Enten already proved _no one_ cared about second place. No one knew Ye'lo Malamig.

Schnee family name it was.

"Well," Yang said, leaning back against the row of bleacher seats behind us… right into a green-haired girl's knees. "Guess- oh, sorry! – So much for their spines, right?"

"They won't last in the tournament," I nodded. If I couldn't beat Pyrrha then I very much doubted they could. My eyes landed on Jaune Arc by chance. "If they even get there."

In the boy's case, that was a _very _big 'if'.

Perhaps I could try to mend the bridges that Enten burned between the redhead and himself, thereby indirectly souring her to the entirety of team RWEBY. We stood behind him, all of us did, when he went to apologize to team JNPR. His actions toward Jaune were extreme and his behavior in our first interview was incredibly hurtful… but he was still a friend. A teammate. Our bonds underwent their first test that day and I was very relieved that they survived and even more ecstatic that they grew stronger for it.

The only regret was Pyrrha's alienation. The rest of her team wasn't as important in the grand scheme of things and while I regretted losing their affection as well, they weren't the Invincible Girl. They didn't have her reputation. They didn't have her fame, her battle prowess.

No, the fact that Enten pushed Jaune, Ren and Nora away was not as damaging as the fact that he offended Pyrrha.

Second place could only hope to share the spotlight with first place and if first place didn't like second place…

Schnee family name-

Movement to my left startled me because it was _close _and it was someone _standing _which meant someone was volunteering to face down Pyrrha Nikos. The Invincible Girl, Pyrrha Nikos. Winner of the Mistral Tournament for four years in a row. Never been touched. Top of the class at Sanctum. Just… there were too many titles and-

My mouth dropped open before I could stop it when I turned – _spine straight, straight! Don't- just turn back to the stage. No blushing-_

I caught Enten winking at me before I turned away from him – because the _fool _stood and volunteered to face Pyrrha – and I was quite certain my cheeks were red. My legs crossed reflexively and the suspended heel immediately started twitching – a nervous habit that I couldn't quite rid myself of.

"Mr Melkweg," Goodwitch said. "Thank you for volunteering."

He nodded to the professor and then turned to us, a small smile on his face. "Anyone for another loss-less week?"

Crazy fool. He was facing Pyrrha Nikos. Boys were so stupid. Even Enten… Still, I offered him a wordless smile of my own because I didn't think I could count on my voice and stupid as he might be, he was still my teammate. He honestly thought he stood a chance… Yang hit harder than he did, Blake was faster, I was more versatile and Ruby possessed a better strategic mind. What did he think he could do? Last longer? Sure… but without any offense…

"Good luck," Yang whispered from my side as he walked by us. Ruby shuffled over, as speechless as me, in the boy's absence.

"Hey," a voice behind me called. Idly, I placed it in the exact spot the green haired girl was sitting.

Let someone else deal with her – this… this was too important to miss. Enten was facing down Pyrrha Nikos and, ridiculous it may be, some small part of me was hopeful. Maybehe could win. Maybe he could do the impossible… Maybe I _could _move into second place after this class?

I knew it was unreasonable. I knew it was unlikely… but-

I heard the girl behind us huff and that alerted me to the fact that my teammates had ignored her too. A quick glance at the three of them told me that they had no intention of changing that any time soon, either…

The groan built in my throat quickly but I forced it down and tore my eyes away from Enten as he placed his bandolier of bullets against the base of the stands. Boys and their toys, honestly.

"Yes," I asked, a little more waspishly than I intended. Given the circumstances surrounding the girl's interruption, though, I found myself uncaring of whether or not I offended her-

Her uniform was different. I did not notice it before but it was far more conservative than Beacon's clothing. The top was heavier, the skirt was longer and the socks were thicker. A colder climate? Haven? Had foreign students already started arriving?

The girl offered me a sardonic smile, her lime green hair fell about her shoulders in an elegant, yet simple style that complimented her dark red eyes and dusky skin. She possessed high cheekbones too – she would fit right in with the highborn children that I found myself conversing with at my father's parties. She even sat with her back straight! And her shoulders too!

"Just wanted to know if you guys were team RWEBY," she muttered, shrugging slightly.

My back straightened of its own accord and I offered her a sincere smile of my own. "We are. I'm sorry for our behavior, too – our teammate just challenged the strongest fighter in the class and we were… shocked."

"I see that," the girl said, her smile morphing into a wide grin that forced shut her eyes. She extended her hand. "Emerald Sustrai, Haven student."

I was right, then. But she was here early – she was also able to place my team by either our appearances alone or our voices. That suggested that she at least knew of us, probably through that interview we did… it was just published a day or two ago. Apparently Enten's family went nuts over it and his little sister – such a cutie – grew even more fanatical.

I cleared my throat softly behind my hand – not the dominant one, of course, wouldn't want to offend. Gracefully, I spun out of my seat and faced her. Now eye-to-eye, I grasped her hand in mine. "Weiss Schnee. It is my pleasure to make your acquaintance."

The girl guffawed. "Yup. I thought I had you pegged for a noble-type. We kind of stick out in crowds, you know?"

"I'm aware," I sympathized with a roll of my eyes. "Blake is the only hope my team has at elegance. I'm afraid Ruby and Yang are-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're both ungraceful oafs. Now would you shut it? The fight's about to start!"

"Charming," Emerald muttered as an aside to me once the blonde turned around again. "Perhaps we can speak more after the match? My leader insisted we come to Beacon early just to meet your team, after all."

"Truly," I said, allowing my eyebrows to rise. They'd come Beacon just to see us? Could it be because of our first place record? Not likely… maybe how fast we rose to first? Maybe… maybe… ugh. Where was Enten when you needed him?

"Yeah," Ruby inserted, twisting around in her seat. "That's super cool! Are we famous now or something?"

The girl laughed behind one of her hands. "I wouldn't say _famous _but you've certainly got people talking. My leader read the article and made the call right there that we needed to come over here early."

Recognition! It was such a thrilling feeling, to be noticed for something that was not my family name.

"Let's speak after the match," I offered, glancing back at the stage just in time to see Goodwitch jump back.

"Sure," she said, smiling.

That done, I wasted no time in spinning back around and placing myself in my seat – _straight back, shoulders level, hands folded. _I made it just in time to see Pyrrha go on the offensive almost immediately, unleashing a barrage of bullets from her gun with an accuracy that I knew was almost inhuman. Luckily, Enten had his shield to protect him… he didn't need to move so she couldn't use the projectiles to knock him off-balance like she did with me…

But she was Pyrrha Nikos. She found a way. She _always _found a way. She _always _managed to avoid getting hit and _always _gave better than she got.

_Ugh._

The redhead lashed out at Enten with her sword just as the boy peeked out from behind his shield, sending him stumbling backward in his haste to avoid getting a nasty cut. The girl hounded him relentlessly, transforming her sword into a javelin in what must have been a quarter second, but Enten turned into the blow with his gauntlet.

Such an unwieldy hunk of metal. It was useful here, though. That much I could admit. Pyrrha couldn't really get around it when it was placed between her and his-

He shoulder-checked her and _for a second-!_

But he missed. Or rather, he found her shield in his way and immediately thereafter found the redhead at his back.

I winced alongside Ruby – whose elbows were in my personal- _'Oh, just watch the duel!' _– when Pyrrha scored the first blow of the match across Enten's back. It was the start of an avalanche, I knew. From here on out there would be nothing _but _attacks landed by the red head. It was the same with my duel… the first hit she scored on me was like a dam breaking. I thought if I just managed to hit her first then maybe I could turn the momentum – and the duel – in my favor. But she hit me first and then she avoided my attacks and my confidence was utterly devastated and…

_Ugh._

I didn't want to count him out yet but…

At least I still had my family name. That stuck with me – regardless of whether or not I wanted it – no matter what place I was in.

Enten shoved the girl away from him and launched some of his Aura at her. He was promptly forced to hide behind his shield again when she opened up on him with her rifle, though. The dexterity she wielded that weapon with made me envious…

Still, he charged her and she ducked under his shield, again placing herself at his back-

He ducked under her blow! He anticipated and then launched his gauntlet at her side and she was vulnerable and… and he missed. He _missed _from that close…

This was starting to look familiar.

Pyrrha jumped away and again harassed him with rifle-fire. Enten reacted as he did the last two times: he hid behind Ultimatum and charged her. He was nearly upon her this time when the girl hurled her shield over his head for some-

He raised his shield above his head! Of course! The shadow from the shield!

'_Brilliant.'_

This time I _felt _Ruby wince and I just about broke my composure alongside her. Enten took a nasty looking blow from the girl's sword and a follow-up jab to boot. He stumbled back even as Pyrrha's shield _clanged _off of the back wall and soared through the air to land on her arm again.

"Maybe… he'll hit her," Ruby asked, her voice meek. "It's not too late, you know…"

"Might," Blake muttered. "He's surprising."

I admired their naivety. It must be nice to look on the bright side even when it was so hopeless a situation.

I'd heard about Pyrrha my entire life. Stories of her time at Sanctum. Articles about her latest accomplishments in tournaments held all around the world. My father even raved about her one evening after she attended a gala he held. He was so excited with the possibility of a sponsorship deal that I got to go to bed without any warnings that night.

He never raved over my accomplishments.

A clash of metal attracted my attention back to the stage and I forced myself to watch the duel. Dramatic it may be, this was RWEBY's last hope at beating the Invincible Girl and I was only going to play spectator to a train wreck. Like every other duel-

'_Stop. No use dwelling on what you can't change. Just focus on making the most of second place.'_

I heard Yang gasp next to me and returned my gaze to the fight just in time to see Enten throw his weight backward and pull Pyrrha forward. The redhead stumbled and he threw his shield at her face and it was _going to_-

He overextended. Ugh. He had her _right _where he wanted her and the boy managed to throw his arm out too far, allowing the girl to roll to his side.

Still, Enten recovered admirably and _actually managed to swing his shield again-!_

And again, he overextended.

"Needs more practice," Blake said. I could almost _hear _the frown in her voice.

"Yeah," Ruby said, punching one of her palms. "We're gonna train up with that new shield!"

Yang shook her head silently. "No… Enten doesn't… He wouldn't do that. He wouldn't miss like that. Not twice."

I refrained from commenting, instead watching sourly as Enten was forced backward by a dominant Pyrrha Nikos. Just like every other duel she fought. She had to have scored half a dozen hits in that short exchange before he was able to throw some of his Aura at the ground.

The red head jumped back and immediately launched a salvo of bullets at the boy. He too jumped back and launched an Aura bullet of his own back at the girl.

She absorbed the projectile with her shield.

I allowed myself a sigh – that was it then. Everything in Enten's repertoire had made an appearance in the duel. Pyrrha either outright negated all of his attacks or dodged them with a graceful counter attack that never failed to leave the boy struggling to stay in the duel. She was controlling the pace of the duel, just as she had every other one. This was admittedly taking longer – Enten was still at _71%_ \- but it was very clear who held the advantage.

A quick glance at my classmates revealed many of them doing homework or conversing with their friends. There weren't many still paying attention to the duel but that was pretty normal. Usually, Pyrrha's duels attracted the attention of the entire class but once she started dominating it, that attention waned.

They wanted to see the red head lose and once they confirmed that the duel was just another win in the Invincible Girl's book, they lost interest fast.

The sound of combat drew my gaze back to the match and I allowed my legs to cross. Sitting in the bleachers in the same position for extended periods of time was uncomfortable.

"Damnit," Yang spat as Enten tried to shoulder check his opponent. Instead of connecting, though, he threw himself off balance and very nearly ended up sprawled out on the ground. He recovered admirably amongst our classmates amused titters, though, and launched an _Aura Bullet at point blank-!_

Which Pyrrha avoided by dropping to the ground but Enten capitalized and shovedUltimatum'stipintohergut-

But he missed! He missed again! Again! He hit the stage! The floor!

"Practice," Blake muttered again. The girl returned to her ever-present book even as Yang shook her head again.

"He's not- I know him. I know how he fights. He's not missing!"

"Well, it certainly _looks _that way," I muttered as Enten tried to fend off the girl's retaliatory attack with a quick jab followed by another shoulder check. This time, when he overextended, he _did _end up sprawled out on the ground. My classmates laughed and I heard elements of CRDL jeering as Pyrrha's sword cut a line down his back. He had to coat the ground with his Aura again to get her away from him. It was a costly defense that I knew he hated using.

"He's just… watching her," Emerald commented behind me when a lull overtook the dueling stage. I nearly jumped but centered myself at the last moment. "Just letting her reload her gun. He should _probably _do something about that."

"He's got a plan," Yang said. "He's gotta have a plan, otherwise he wouldn't just be standing there."

"Giving up," the green haired girl asked. "Some plan."

"He doesn't give up," the blonde fired back, tossing a glare over her shoulder.

Ruby turned fully in her seat, nearly kneeing me in the stomach. I almost scolded her but I wasn't too pleased with the Haven student's comments either. "Yeah! He's just thinking! He's _really _good at it so… so he's not giving up!"

"Alright, alright," Emerald said, holding her hands up.

Ruby turned back to the stage, apparently mollified and I refocused on the duel as well.

I could not see his expression from up in the stands, but it was clear to me what he was doing. It was what he always did. It was one of his most curious, most impressive traits.

He was observing.

It probably wouldn't do him any good here, not after that abysmal series of attacks with Ultimatum. It was clear to me that he still wasn't used to the new shield's weight or girth. But still, maybe he could uncover something that we could use in future duels? Maybe… maybe there was something I couldn't see? Yang certainly seemed to think so.

"Watch," the blonde said resolutely, when Enten started to move. "Just watch. Just…" She shook her head. "Just watch."

So I did.

I watched as Enten approached Pyrrha, again blocking a salvo of bullets effortlessly with the shield on his arm.

My eyebrows rose when the boy launched himself _above _the girl because everyone was more vulnerable in the air – he himself said that…

My mouth dropped open when he _threw his shield _at the girl. His weapon! His only protection against her! He- Ugh! That idiot! If he _was_ giving up… Ooh, I was going to give him such an earful later!

Suddenly, too fast for me to react, Yang's arm shot out and grasped my forearm in a painfully tight grip.

"Ya-"

"Recognize this?"

"What, you manhandling my-"

"_No_. What Enten's doing- look! Quick!"

My eyes narrowed but I decided to humor her. She was acting strangely and anything that could give me insight into _why _would very much be appreciated by both my mind and my arm.

Enten and Pyrrha were facing each other in melee now and the boy just launched a jab at the girl. She-

She didn't move. Why? She moved- she dodged _every single other attack-_

His fist impacted her shield and he threw himself into a roll, easily avoiding a retaliatory swing of her sword. He then wasted no time in throwing his Aura at the ground and the _girlmovedagain!_

She jumped! She was in the air! She-

Yang's hand tightened around my arm and I forgot how to breathe for a moment. Enten launched a series of attacks _and I knew what was coming!_

"No," Blake muttered, her eyes likely just as riveted on the match as mine were. I subconsciously registered my classmates still paying the fight no mind. Fools. Fools, all of them! They didn't know! They- This was history in making!

Enten's right fist impacted her shield and the elbow- the follow up elbow! It hit her shield too! Just like it was supposed to- she wasn't moving now! She wasn't dodging! This was different! New!

"Come on," Yang growled under her breath.

Enten sidestepped a jab from the girl's weapon even as he pulled his right hand back, throwing the shield away from her body and giving him the momentum he needed behind his left-!

She didn't dodge the left jab. It hit her full on in the gut! She didn't dodge it!

_She crumpled around it!_

Yang was on her feet immediately, roaring louder than I'd ever heard her yell before and Ruby was only a half-step behind her older sister. Both them jumped up to their feet before Pyrrha even reached the apex of her arch across the dueling stage because Enten hit her _hard_-

"_Go Enten_," I _screamed_.

'_He hit Pyrrha. He hit her. By dust…"_

Vaguely, somewhere in the back of my mind, I registered my classmates' chattering. Emerald's gasp behind me. Cardin's surprised exclamation. Ye'lo's frustrated howling. I heard it all.

But, like the cacophony of sound Enten stirred up when he punched _Pyrrha Nikos_, my mind was a chaotic mess of thoughts.

This changed everything. I had thought Pyrrha untouchable. Unbeatable. I had thought her truly invincible, especially after _Yang _failed to hit her. If not the blonde, then who _could?_

Enten.

He hit her. He _leveled _her. Her – the four time champion of the Mistral Tournament. Her – top of her class at Sanctum. Her – the untouchable, invincible fighter that _everyone _expected to become the strongest huntress of our generation! Pyrrha Nikos was supposed to be everything that an aspiring huntress should be.

But Enten didn't care. He didn't let that bother him. He didn't let that stop him from decking the girl straight across the dueling stage… Even now, as he hounded the redhead and _Pyrrha Nikos _retreated, he didn't care.

This changed everything.

Suddenly, the spotlight was on _my_ team. On RWEBY. _We _were the best. We…

We were first. _I _was first…

_I was first!_

It never seemed real to me, until now. RWEBY's top ranking only seemed like a fluke, brought on by Enten's subterfuge and a few lucky weeks. Pyrrha was invincible and it was only a matter of time until she caught us. It was only a matter of time until public attention shifted back to JNPR and away from RWEBY.

We were to be forgotten. I thought it would happen sometime during the tournament. I thought…

I thought wrong.

"_YEAH,"_ Yang roared next to me, shaking me from my thoughts. _"Kick her ass!"_

I blinked and became aware of what was happening around me again. My classmates were caught between cheering, jeering and sitting in shocked, awed silence. That Emerald girl was dead silent behind me but Yang and Ruby were more than making up for it with their yelling. Blake, ever the quiet girl, was only watching the match wordlessly, her eyes – Had they always been so angular? So much like a cat's… – tracking our teammate fervently.

Yang howled something explicit next to me and my eyes finally returned to the dueling stage. I needed to watch this happen. I needed to _see_. This was… this was far, _far _more important to me than I'd realized.

Enten was backpedaling and dismay abruptly overtook me. Pyrrha was hounding him now, switching her weapon between a sword and a javelin with a finesse that never failed to make me envious. She was swinging and stabbing and feinting so quickly… the boy was trying to keep up but without Ultimatum it was clearly a fruitlessly endeavor. The shield itself was lying on the ground behind him now.

'_He needs to re-arm himself.'_

The surprise attack worked but without that metal barrier, Pyrrha was going to pick him apart. The added defensive power it gave him more than made up for his lack of experience with the weapon. Eventually he would be able to judge distances with it correctly but he would _not _be able to keep this up without something-

My hands flew to my mouth to cover my gasp and Yang took to muttering under her breath. Blake leaned forward, Ruby shouted angrily and even Emerald grunted in surprise.

Pyrrha hurtled her javelin at _his head! _What was that girl thinking!? That was completely-

But the redhead wasn't done. Her weapon returned to her hand – _somehow _– and a clearly visible trail of red followed it, Enten's arm had been dealt a bad blow. She then proceeded to slam her shield into his torso, forcing the boy back-

His foot hit the shield as he backpedaled and he was suddenly falling!

My eyes widened and honed in on his face even as my teammates grew quiet. Their dismay was nearly palpable but from the look on Enten's face, it was unwarranted.

The boy was calm. His mouth was shut and his brow looked like it might be a little furrowed – it was hard to see the finer details from so far away – but otherwise he looked unhar-

Ultimatum glowed suddenly and launched what I knew to be Aura at Pyrrha just as the girl lunged after Enten!

Yang whooped – she still sounded angry – when the red head was tossed into the air and her sister joined her when Enten threw himself after his opponent. His training evidently allowed him to recover absurdly fast – fast enough even to disarm the 'Invincible Girl'.

'_But she's not. Not anymore.'_

No longer was Pyrrha a glass ceiling over my head. She was not perfect. She was not destined to be the best.

She could be beaten. She had emotions, she had weaknesses, both of which I'd seen in this fight.

A brief lapse in an otherwise intense match occurred then, Enten locked away Pyrrha's weapon – _'Good. That last attack was __**far **__beyond necessary.' _– and the redhead regained her composure.

It was the first time I'd ever seen her lose it.

In retrospect, it was stupid of me to put the girl on such a high, unreachable pedestal. To think of her as completely and utterly unbeatable, to the extent that even trying to fight her was pointless.

It was stupid.

And yet, at the same time, it made sense… I'd heard nothing but good things about Pyrrha Nikos from my father. That man _never _said anything good about anyone, at least not in my presence. He even started comparing _me _to the girl and that… that… Well, it was not a boon to my self-confidence.

Then, I came to Beacon. I met the girl who caught my father's eye and saw her prove that every story I'd heard about her was true. Of how she won tournaments without even having to try. About how she _could not _be hit by another human. Or faunus, but that was a given.

I saw it all and experienced it firsthand. She was everything I wanted to be. She was everything my father looked for in a daughter. He even told me so.

She was everything I was not. Charming, popular, warm, friendly, strong, admired…

But she was also only human.

And humans were anything but perfect.

So stupid of me to put her on that pedestal.

A metallic _clang _drew my attention back to the duel – _'Focus! This is important!' _– and I looked just in time to see Pyrrha's shield miss Enten's head by what had to be mere inches. The boy ducked under the object and immediately launched himself into a series of exchanges with the redhead.

She got the best of him, redirecting an elbow toward the ground and kicking him away when he was recovering. The girl wasted no time in sprinting toward Ultimatum, doubtlessly to get her weapon back.

"Come on, come on, come on," Yang chanted under her breath. I could imagine her with her fists clenched and her hair in disarray around her head as she leaned forward on her knees. She was rarely ever conscious of her appearance and I did not want to take my eyes away from the fight to confirm my thoughts.

Enten was moving.

He was moving away from Pyrrha, though, instead he was… He was going for her shield! It lay discarded and forgotten, sitting off to the side on the dueling stage. The boy grasped it and spun his body around to put his momentum behind the throw. The shield _whipped _through the air and-

I could not help but wince when it collided with the redhead's back. That looked _brutal_.

But then, Enten attacked, and I re-defined what I thought of as brutal.

The boy landed a punch on the girl's side, easily staggering her. He then kicked her legs out from underneath her and, to finish off his assault, he threw all of his body weight behind his right fist. With a purple flash of Aura, it impacted her chin and _launched _her across the platform.

_Brutal_.

Yang was yelling again and Ruby was jumping up and down. Emerald was making impressed sounds behind me and Blake actually grunted in surprise.

I was… slightly unsettled, now. Rarely did any duels get this… this _physical_. And the ones that did usually involved the brutes on team CRDL. The rest of my classmates were aware that this was just a staged fight and restrained themselves accordingly… None of Enten's blows could be counted as lethal but… they were certainly… _more damaging._

But then, this was Pyrrha Nikos. Human she may be, she was still on another level entirely. Perhaps he found it necessary step up his game in response? I didn't know – I never got this far with the redhead so perhaps I should withhold my opinion, my judgement until I speak with him.

I watched Enten as he landed behind Pyrrha. The girl launched a mule-kick at him but he avoided-

A flash of gold attracted my eye and- was that a shield? Was that Pyrrha's shield?

It was! It soared through the air of its own accord and-

_Clang!_

I winced again when it collided with the back of Enten's head.

'_Brutal.'_

The boy stumbled away from his opponent, throwing some of his Aura at her to keep her at bay. But Pyrrha showed him no mercy.

She hurled her javelin at him again and he threw himself to the ground to avoid it. Immediately, she launched herself at him and threw the arm with her shield on it forward.

Enten, still very clearly disoriented, managed to accept the blow on his leather armor and wasted no time in throwing himself back at the girl. He caught her around the waist and they hit the ground in a tangle of flailing limbs.

I sucked in a breath when he managed to get the best of the girl, straddling her midsection. He promptly threw his right fist down. He missed, though and received an elbow to his gut for his troubles. He hunched over and turned his reaction into an attack when he head-butted her. It hit and I could easily imagine a loud _smack _when Pyrrha's head hit the ground_._

Yang burst out laughing from where she stood next to me. Ruby actually released an appreciative coo. It was a sound I normally heard the girl make around weaponry.

Enten raised himself up above Pyrrha and suddenly the entire moment seemed surreal to me.

_Enten: 19%. Pyrrha: 33%._

I was fully aware that my teammate held the advantage in this match, now. His previous fights showed me that if he got someone on the ground, he _would win_. Pyrrha Nikos was not unbeatable. She was not untouchable and, most importantly…

She was not invincible.

When Enten won – _'If! If he wins!' _– then I'd be one step closer to my dream.

The most popular team. The strongest team. It seemed like such an unreachable thing just ten minutes ago…

Enten cocked his fist back and Pyrrha's head lolled to the side. She was dazed but only for the moment. The boy needed to capitalize on his advantage and he knew that too. He wasted no time in throwing his arm down, all of his weight behind the punch-

A flash of gold caught my eye again, from across the stage. Immediately I thought of Pyrrha's shield but that was still on her arm, where it lay on the stage. No, this… her weapon!

A gasp tore free from my lips before I could stop it, in time with a flurry of movement from where Professor Goodwitch stood on the edge of the stage.

Time slowed.

I saw the elder blonde raise her riding crop and immediately my mind erupted into questions. Why was she moving? Was she attacking someone? Had the duel gone too far? Was something wrong?

Crystalline dust burst forth from the weapon in Goodwitch's hands and hurtled across the stage toward… toward the weapon flying through the air. It had traveled far in the time I was watching my professor, it was actually just about to reach… reach…

'_Oh no.'_

It was flying at Enten's back! It- It was going- It was sharp! And his Aura. His Aura was too low and it wouldn't block it and it…

'_Oh no!'_

I jumped to my feet just as Goodwitch's crystals reached the weapon. They clashed with it fiercely and it rocked up but it was already so close-

"_No," _I blurted, throwing myself at the dueling stage without a second thought.

_Schlick._

"_AAAAAAH!"_

It wasn't enough. It wasn't enough! Professor Goodwitch couldn't stop it and it hit Enten and it was _buried _in his shoulder and _by dust _that looked _bad _and was he going to die? He couldn't die! He- I saw blood. There was blood on his shoulder and it splattered on the ground when he rolled off Pyrrha-

'_Pyrrha! __**She **__did this and-'_

My feet hit the ground but the click of my heels – something that normally relaxed me – was drowned out by Enten's howling. His screaming. His thrashing. He was in _pain! _He was lurching around on the ground like he was having a seizure and Professor Goodwitch only just reached him but he recoiled away from her and thrashed more-

"Enten, Enten," I called when I reached him. I threw myself down and landed on my knees and hunched over because _screw _elegance. "Enten," I tried again, leaning closer. "Enten!"

But it was no use. His eyes were open but they were unfocused and bloodshot and his shoulder was _mangled_ and brutalized. There was blood _everywhere_. There was so much blood!

"Enten," I heard Yang call. The blonde appeared and landed roughly next to me – it forced me to the side. At any other time, I might've been upset… but now…

"Girls," Goodwitch's voice said from behind me. Is that where she'd gone? I wondered- and what did she means girls? Just Yang and I- oh! Blake and Ruby were here too…

"Girls," the blonde said, more firmly this time. I tore my eyes away from Enten – the boy was sitting in a daze now, one arm still trying to grasp at his shoulder. Yang held it away.

He was no longer screaming – thank dust. I'd never heard someone scream like that before… when words failed and all they could do was express emotion in agonizing, _raw _sounds.

"Good," the woman nodded, straightening her clothing and fixing her hair. "I need the four of you to escort your teammate to the medical room and return here _promptly_. You still have duels to complete."

With that, she turned on her heel and walked away, toward Pyrrha-

'_I was going to give her __**such **__an earful!'_

But that could wait. It had to wait. Enten was still bleeding – '_so much blood' _– and he needed to be cared for. Blake was already under his good arm and his bad one – _bone jutting from the skin, blood running down the limb, golden weapon embedded-_

His bad one was going to be left _alone_.

Complete and utter silence followed us as team RWEBY staggered out of the hall.

* * *

_Week 15 – Friday, medical room – Weiss Schnee_

I never knew heart monitors were so loud.

It reminded me of the metronome that my piano instructor would use during my childhood lessons. A steady _tick, tick, tick _that provided me with a beat by which I could play my music.

_Beep…beep…beep…_

The heart monitor was similar in that it remained steady. It was similar in that it – admittedly inadvertently – provided the room with a beat. But unlike the metronome, this beat had a purpose. A purpose that was so incredibly important…

It monitored the life of my friend.

_Beep…beep…beep…_

"Guys," Enten groused, clearly drowsy. The fourth-year assistant put something into the water that fed into his bloodstream not too long ago. "Seriously. Go back to class. I'll be fine."

"We're staying until we know you're alright," Yang responded immediately, before anyone else could even think to speak. She almost cut him off, actually.

I was used to the blonde's protectiveness by now, though. I didn't realize it at first because she only directed it at Ruby, but Yang Xiao Long was an incredibly caring individual. She made it her priority to make sure the rest of the team was happy and safe. It was part of who she was… Enten thought that facet of her personality developed because she and Ruby never truly had a mother growing up. With no maternal figure, the blonde fell into the roll for Ruby.

It was logical, just like almost everything Enten said, and I agreed. What the boy did not realize, though, was that _Yang _had no maternal figure too. He seemed to forget that the blonde was just as vulnerable as Ruby was, the difference being: she had no one to be a mother for _her_.

Enten got quiet when I mentioned that. I understood.

_Beep…beep…beep…_

"Hey doc," the fourth year assistant – he introduced himself as Black – called. "His blood pressure is normal… Like, _completely_ normal."

I blinked and Ruby stirred beside me. We were both sitting in uncomfortable plastic chairs at Enten's bedside, caught between a need to make sure he was okay and the responsibilities placed upon our shoulders as Beacon students. We needed to get back to class… But even more, we needed to make sure RWEBY's E was going to be alright.

"What," Madam Blanca, Beacon's resident medical professional, asked as she returned from the medical room's storage closet. In her old, weathered hands were an assortment of bandages, tapes and what I thought were bags of blood.

"Here," Black said, holding up the dial he was reading before.

"What's he mean normal," Ruby asked when Blanca took the device in her hand. "Is that good? Is Enten okay?"

Yang reached forward and placed her hand on her younger sister's shoulder even as the doctor took the stethoscope from her assistant and started manipulating the sleeve on Enten's arm.

"He's lost a substantial amount of blood. His blood pressure _should _be much lower than this," Blanca said after several seconds of silence, a frown on her face. She stepped back and crossed her arms, her eyes swept over the injury – messily and hastily dressed in their rush to get Enten settled.

"Doc," Yang asked. I saw her hand tighten on Ruby's shoulder when the girl made to get up. Enten turned sluggishly to observe the younger girl as well.

_Beep..beep..beep.._

"He'll be fine," she said, glancing at Yang. Then, to Black: "Redress the wound."

Silence settled over us then and the heart monitor reigned as the only source of sound in the room.

It was faster, now.

The doctor must have noticed it too, for she glanced at us.

"You four will have to leave now," she said. "I believe-"

"But what about Enten," Ruby demanded, shaking off her sister's hand and rising from her seat.

"Your teammate will be fine," Blanca soothed.

"Ruby," Enten cut in when the girl looked ready to argue. "I'm in good hands. You… head back to class."

The boy promptly yawned once he was done speaking but his assurance appeared to convince Ruby, for the girl nodded, albeit after several seconds of studying the boy with a frown on her face.

"But if you start… if you get worse, then let us know!"

Enten laughed tiredly. "You got it, squirt."

Ruby's eyes widened and it struck me then, how much of a little sister she was. Given the fact that Yang was her elder and she was in a class of people two years her senior, I suppose that was to be expected. What role would she take, if not younger sibling, with those people to whom she grew close? It reminded me of how Winter used to be, before she grew old enough to start her etiquette training.

The younger girl turned and strutted from the room, her nose in the air. I watched her go with an amused smile on my face. Of course she would walk properly _now_… when she was actively trying to walk in a comical manner.

Ugh.

"Get better," Blake said simply, drawing my attention back to the bed and its occupant. The faunus left her book on his bedside table and, after hesitating, followed Ruby out of the room.

Only Yang and I were left now and the good doctor was giving us a less than pleased look. Enten's heart monitor was only just calming again…

"What," the boy grunted. "No congratulations? Even from you, blondie?"

The girl scoffed. "I'll congratulate you when you aren't a bed-ridden mess… and after I _talk _to Pyrrha."

"Go easy on her. She's had it rough," the boy said, coughing. He suppressed a wince when the fourth-year working at his shoulder poured some liquid into the wound. "Has a right to a grudge. I-" he yawned, "I pushed her too hard."

Yang grunted, clearly doubtful, but turned to leave all the same.

Enten watched her go silently and without argument. When the doors closed behind her, turned to me.

"No so unbeatable now, huh?"

A smile pulled at my lips and I allowed it to grow. Of all the things he could think of in the state he was in, _me _was not one I expected.

"No," I allowed.

Another yawn escaped him. "You're quiet."

"Just thinking… re-evaluting."

"Well," he grunted, "don't think too hard. You'll get wrinkles."

"I most certainly will not," I said, scoffing. Such a ridiculous notion. I was never going to get wrinkles. I was a lady.

He only grinned and shrugged, prompting Black to scold him for moving his shoulder.

"Get well," I said, uncertain. I'd never been in this situation before… wishing that someone get well again. My voice sounded more like I was pleading than wishing someone luck. A sigh escaped me. Not even half way into this Friday and it was already such a trying day…

"Will… Will do," he said, his eyes drooping. It was clear to me that he was about to fade; I turned to leave. I was almost at the door when he spoke again: "And Weiss?"

"Yes," I said, my hand hovering over the doorknob.

"Second place," he muttered, his eyes barely open now. There was a small, half grin on his otherwise completely drowsy face. "Better… you better… get it. Wanna see you… there, when I- when I wake up."

I swallowed, finding it harder and harder to suppress the smile on my face with every passing moment.

Every one of his actions was interesting. Every one of his actions had a reason behind them. He never did anything if it didn't serve some kind of purpose. He was so very pragmatic in that way… always using cold logic to differentiate between a good choice and a bad one.

But this time… what if _I _was the reason he fought Pyrrha?

The thought made me happy. Happy that someone would go to such lengths for me. I found myself hoping that he _did _do it for me… It was such a nice thought.

"And Weiss," he continued, his voice now quiet. He sounded like he was only just holding on to consciousness. "Event- Eventual-" He swallowed heavily. "First place… we'll, we'll be there."

Oh, this boy.

He nodded off completely after that, prompting Black to release a pleased grunt. I paid the fourth-year no mind. Instead, I made my way back over to the bed.

_Beep…beep…beep…_

The doctor was watching me like a hawk, I knew, but I couldn't bring myself to care. My heels clicked on the ground in time with Enten's heartbeat. In the otherwise silent room, the familiar beat was a soothing presence on my otherwise chaotic mind.

I reached the bedside and studied the boy for a moment, my cheeks burning.

His eyes were shut and his face was slack. It made him look like a completely different person. Gone was the ever-present furrow in his brow. Gone was the calculating, almost mischievous, glint in his eyes. His lips were relaxed, looking completely out of place when they were usually held in a rigid line.

He looked softer. More vulnerable. More like the Enten team RWEBY knew.

But, most importantly, he looked _asleep_.

I leaned down and placed a chaste kiss on his cheek. He deserved it.

That done, I turned with a flourish – _back straight, shoulders back, chin up, smile… smile in place _– and made my way back into Beacon's halls. Perhaps I could go without my public face for today – I had much to be happy about and very little to hide, after all.

'_Team RWEBY. We'll make that name famous in its own right someday.'_

* * *

**A/N:** Weiss Schnee, ladies and gents! A little bit of loneliness mixed together with self-confidence issues and an irrational fear of the faunus. Underneath it all: a heart of gold.

(01/26/2016) Revised.

Hope you guys enjoyed this – it wasn't quite as much fun as Ruby's was to write but then Weiss is somewhat more complicated. Still… I think it helps keep me honest as far as each member of RWEBY is concerned. It's easier to figure out how they'll react when I write from their own perspective.

**Note:** Now that the 2015 RWBY panel as occurred, we know what Winter Schnee and Uncle Qrow look like (among a few other things). We also know that Winter Schnee is the _elder _sibling of Weiss Schnee. Well, in this story she'll be a _younger _sibling because that's how I planned the story line. A minor change, but one I felt worth mentioning nonetheless. The problem with writing a fic this early is that, eventually, it'll clash with canon characters' background stories but that's a known risk and one I'm willing to work around.

Now, I received **21 **reviews for that last chapter and that blows away the previous record! You guys rock! Keep the feedback flowing – I love reading it!

**Guest-numero dos**: Glad the nickname stuck! Definitely agree that Pyrrha could be prone to doing some… extreme things if her friends were threatened. She and Enten are actually kind of similar in that regard, now that I think about it. Thanks for the review!

**Nemrut: **Glad you like it! I try to keep the story original and believeable first and foremost. The changes to canon are often brought about by the simple fact that there's another character in the world now… and that changes things. As far as the whole 'why did CRDL still bother Jaune after the forest': Cardin's anger at Enten for decking him across the jaw outweighed his desire to bully Jaune. Thus, the bully spent the entire field trip looking for team RWEBY rather than harassing Jaune. I think I alluded to that at the end of that chapter…but that was a long time ago, so I may be misremembering. At any rate, thanks for the review!

**Riero**: I don't think Enten went into the duel planning so far ahead, you're right. In retrospect, it _did _work out rather well for him, huh? As far as multiple concussions go: I don't have the medical knowledge to really address that in the fic so, to keep from messing something up, I decided to gloss over the finer details of injury recovery. Aura works as a wonderful catch-all here!

**BionicKid: **Thanks for the review! As far as potentially stupid actions go, Enten's was pretty far up there… though the next chapter might beat out volunteering to fight Pyrrha… just sayin'. Thanks for the review!

**Guest: **That you found it good enough to read multiple times means I must be doing something right! As far as Blake running away… that's still in the works. It just won't be done the same way. Depending on how long winded I get, you might actually see that happen next chapter! Thanks for your review!

Till next time!

-Phailen


	23. Chapter 23

"_Your worst and most dangerous enemy is the person that injures you under the pretensions of friendship." –Norman MacDonald_

* * *

_Week 15 – Friday, dueling hall waiting room – Pyrrha Nikos_

"I am disappointed in you, Miss Nikos," Professor Goodwitch said, stopping in front of my chair.

I kept my eyes on the ground; where normally I found it easy to make eye contact with conversation partners, this time I found it unspeakably hard.

Shame. Overwhelming shame pulled at my mind. Relentlessly and ruthlessly, it tore away at my sanity. At my sense of self. At my rational mind.

I never should have done it. I shouldn't have tried… I shouldn't have…

'_You know what you did. Own it. The only way you can get through this is by acknowledging it.'_

…I never should have tried to kill Enten Melkweg.

I knew that. I knew it when my hand beckoned forth my weapon on that dueling stage. I knew it when I saw him ready a knock-out blow. I knew it when my consciousness slipped away amidst his screams.

And the most terrifying part of it all? The most mind-numbingly horrifying part of the entire, sordid ordeal?

For that brief moment, when I saw that sword spear through his shoulder, I felt vindicated.

I was _happy_.

That scared me more than _anything _I've ever faced before. Death stalkers and Nevermores could _never_ produce the same raw terror I felt when I realized just what I'd done and how I felt about it. Conversing with my peers and attempting to blindly, desperately form bonds with them didn't even hold a candle to it.

'_The blood… there was so much on the stage…'_

Did I want Enten Melkweg dead? Was he dangerous enough to… did he threaten my _friends _enough…

Was I really contemplating this? Of course I didn't want him dead! He might have intentionally tried to get Jaune killed and then _lied _to my face about it and shrugged the _entire _situation with a half-assed apology that his teammates somehow found _acceptable_ but… But I didn't want to kill him. I didn't.

Though I would not shed any tears if something else-

'_No! Stop! That isn't me! That isn't who I am!'_

I came here to get away from my fame in Mistral, hoping that somehow, someway, the people of Vale might not know my name or my face. That my Beacon classmates wouldn't know who I was… That I would have a chance to make friends _normally. _That I would be able to escape The Invincible Girl and just be Pyrrha... a normal teenage girl.

_Me._

And I did. I did find people who knew nothing of my name or my fame. Jaune. Nora. Ren. Ruby. Even _Enten_.

And to think I once thought of him as a friend.

My friends were far too precious to me to lose. I _would not _lose them. Not when I had so few… Not when most of my classmates still acted star struck around me. They were far too rare, my friends, far too important to me…

"I understand that your emotions might get the better of you in a duel," Professor Goodwitch said, her voice softer now. Her feet stopped in front of me and I saw her hand appear in front of my face, a tissue in her fingers. I took it numbly, only then did I realize I was crying.

I hadn't cried since long, long before I started competing in tournaments. No one liked a champion that cried.

"But you must learn to _control _them, Miss Nikos… Mr Melkweg is… an incredibly cunning opponent. He will use everything he can to beat you, including mental warfare. He will not be the last one you meet-"

"I know," I bit out. "I know. I've- I've faced people like him before… just…"

Enten Melkweg was the only opponent who knew how to press my buttons. The only one who knew what to say to get to me.

The only one who had tried to kill my friends.

"I know," I finished quietly. The tissue was promptly used to dab at my eyes.

Professor Goodwitch sighed. "We will speak of your punishment later, after I attend to the rest of your classmates. You may re-join us if you wish or stay in this room. Come to the Headmaster's office at one o'clock. We will speak of your reprimand then."

I nodded mutely and, after hesitating for a moment, the older woman left.

The door shutting behind the blonde was the moment my dam broke.

The first sob came suddenly and quickly. I was unprepared for it, for its intensity, and my knees met the unforgiving ground roughly. The second one had me curling into a ball, fingers taut around the tissue like it was a lifeline. The third one brought with it my first shuddering breath since the Professor left.

The fourth one brought with it my voice.

I yelled, I moaned, I hit the ground with my fists… I don't know how long I lay there like some kind of _pathetic _child, bawling her eyes out… But when I came up for air again, it was to the same empty room.

Empty. The story of my life.

Fame and fortune sounded so great to me as a child, as a girl of three or four. I wanted so badly to be a world renowned fighter. I trained endlessly, to the exclusion of all other social activities.

My parents worried and warned me that I shouldn't ignore my peers… but the arrogance of youth led me to ignore them in turn. It was only later, after I won my second Mistral tournament and people started recognizing me, that I realized how horribly, horribly stupid I was.

I had no friends. Only associates.

I had no fond memories to recall outside of the arena. No memories that I could share with _friends_.

I had nothing.

And I tried. I tried _so hard _to fit in. It started with going to parties and gatherings to which my fans invited me. I thought I would be able to make friends there – but again, I was disappointed. I only met followers, people interested in my name and my skills, not what I had for lunch or my favorite movie or my favorite color-

A shuddering sob racked my body and I sniffed loudly. I hated doing it because I'd only have to blow my nose later but right now I couldn't bring myself to care. I ruined everything. Everyone would hate me or… or…

I couldn't lose Beacon. I couldn't lose my _friends_.

By the time I started my year here, I had all but given up hope. It was a last, desperate resort – one last try at friendship – that led me to be outgoing in my first few days here.

And I finally, _finally _saw success.

I met plenty of people who knew the 'Invincible Girl' but I also met a handful that did not. People that cared about _me_. About what I liked to do and what books I liked to read and… and…

Jaune was the first. He acted such a fool in the locker room, when he tried to impress Weiss Schnee. The white haired girl only struck him down repeatedly, though, so I thought I might take a chance with him. Get to know him. Maybe comfort him or… or whatever it was that friends did for one another when they got rebuffed.

He ignored me at first – admittedly, that hurt – but eventually he came around. We became partners and he was everything I ever hoped a friend would be! We talked about things that I could never talk about with my fans and we ate lunch together and our team was great and we _never _spoke of my tournaments or my fights or my wealth!

Ren and Nora too. I could easily tell that she had a crush on him. I asked her about it one night and she actually opened up to me! Then she asked _me _about who I liked! It was so surreal… I'd heard about speaking like that all the time but I'd never actually done it before.

It was perfect. It was everything I hoped Beacon would be. There were still _fans _but as long as I had my _friends_ then I was content.

Ruby too. And Yang and even Blake a little bit… though she never spoke to me but Enten assured me that was normal.

Enten.

I had thought him a friend too, once upon a time. He didn't know of my reputation or my skills or anything so I accepted him readily. Foolishly. Friends never did anything to hurt each other, after all, not in the stories I'd heard.

Jaune started having trouble with Cardin Winchester near the end of his first month here. The blond's application was fake – he confided that to me and I didn't care and I _never_ told anyone… but somehow, CRDL's leader found out about it.

I didn't recognize it at first. I'd heard about bullying before but never in my wildest dreams had I thought my _friend _would be the victim. I think it caught us all by surprise, even Jaune…

Quickly, I found myself lost. My limited experience with friends left me clueless in the face of this challenge. I tried offering my help to the blond but he refused me time and time again. What else could I do but respect his wishes? That was what friends did. They trusted each other and if Jaune said he could handle it himself, then I had to trust him to know his limits.

But it grew worse. Jaune kept waving it off but Cardin grew brasher and bolder every day.

For three months I watched my first friend get put down and physically abused, wanting more than anything to help but at the same time, powerless to do anything… If I went against Jaune's wishes then he might stop being my friend and that… that was _unacceptable_.

So I watched. Desperate to help but completely unable to do anything.

Those were hard times for me. Every time Jaune came back late at night, downtrodden and beaten up, I grew sad. Unbearably so. It hurt me to see him like that, almost like a real, physical blow… but to watch him suffer over three months of abuse?

No one ever told me friendships were so hard.

But then, it stopped. Miraculously and amazingly so. Jaune came back with a black eye one day and I forced the issue despite my worries over losing him. We yelled, vile words were thrown and he stormed out with a promise to never return. I cried myself to sleep, thinking it'd be the last time I saw him.

Imagine my surprise when he showed up in the middle of the night, shaking my shoulder with an apology on his lips.

…I did not make it easy for him. He hurt me more than any physical blow ever had when he stormed away. But friends accepted each other. They forgave.

So I did.

And everything was back to the way it was at the very beginning of the semester… For almost an entire week.

This time, Jaune went from happy and energetic to sad and stressed _very _quickly.

Cardin found another piece of blackmail.

This time, I ignored Jaune because I was _not _going to suffer through watching _him _suffer again. I learned a valuable lesson the first time around – sometimes I needed to ignore my friends' wishes to help them.

I went to have a talk with Cardin but the boy threatened me with The Council of Three. Evidently he figured out that they could overrule the Headmaster and now he was holding _that _over Jaune's head. I tried everything I could think of. I threatened, I reasoned, I offered to train him… I even _begged_.

The fact that I failed made his jeering laughter even more hurtful.

It was in a rage that I went to see Enten Melkweg then. As useless as the confrontation with Cardin had been, it did provide me with a name. A culprit.

Suddenly, I found that friends _could _betray each other. It was a sobering realization.

But when I found him, Enten provided me with a logical counter-argument. Cardin hated RWEBY's E because of an incident that left the bully with a broken jaw. It made sense, then, that he would be used as a scapegoat.

Add to that the fact that Jaune was originally helped out _by _Enten and… well, I found myself once more upset and frustrated. This time because I'd made such a horrible error and leveled such a horrible, terrible accusation at one of my _friends_.

Friend.

A scoff escaped me and I took a moment to gather my thoughts. My head still ached from the duel and my back would probably be sore tomorrow, but it paled in comparison to what I'd done to my _friend_.

Traitor.

How his team could stand with him, I did not know.

I reached for my shield and sword – they lay on a table in the center of the otherwise plain room – and a stain on my armor caught my attention.

It was blood.

_Happiness_.

No. No… I wasn't like him. I wasn't willing to kill my classmates, my _friends_, just so... so…

_Ugh!_

I placed my hands on the table and leaned over it. My eyes closed of their own accord and I grit my teeth.

I may not be like him, but that didn't mean I couldn't _learn_ from him.

And Enten Melkweg, intentionally or not, had taught me a very valuable lesson.

No one, friend or foe, could be trusted.

* * *

**A/N: **Surprise mutha truckas! Bet you weren't expecting this!

I've changed her character so much that I realized I needed to sit down and figure out what Pyrrha Nikos' motivations were. Where she stood with team RWEBY and Enten. And what better way to do that than to write her reaction to the duel?

Consider this a freebie There'll still be a chapter posted next Friday. The 'real' chapter, if you will.

-Phailen


	24. Chapter 24

_Week 15 – Saturday, medical room_

"Weiss. Weiss, I need you to listen to me," I tried again, desperation bleeding into my voice. I lifted my Scroll up to my face, the better to stare into my white-haired teammate's eyes. "I would _not _look good in a battle skirt. Do you understand me? Repeat it with me now: Enten would not-"

"I don't know," she said, favoring me with a mischievous smile. "You have nice legs."

"I what?"

"You have nice legs. You should show them-"

"You're _insane_. I said you could buy me new combat clothes. I _did not_ say you could put me a skirt!"

"A skirt is clothing."

"_Female _clothing!"

"So? Weren't you the one who told me that others' opinions only matter if you let them?"

I threw my hand over my face even as I became aware of my heart monitor's pace increasing. Great. Just what I needed. Not only was I stuck in a hospital bed, but I now had to deal with _this_.

"You hear this? That heart monitor? You see what you're doing to me?"

I heard a voice that sounded distinctly like Adel's scoff.

"Was that Adel?! Do you have Adel with you," I demanded of the girl.

"No," Weiss said, an-all-too-innocent smile on her face. I knew it well, Phoebe wore the same one whenever she was _lying_. The difference between dealing with my lying-sister and lying-Weiss was that I had no dirt on lying-Weiss.

Desperate times…

"Weiss," I pleaded.

"Did he just _beg?!"_

"You _do _have Adel there!"

"I brought her along as an advisor," Weiss admitted, her nose in the air. "Together, we'll get you the _perfect _combat skirt!"

"_I am not wearing a skirt!"_

A muffled laugh drew my attention from my Scroll conversation to a boy at the door. Immediately, I noticed that he did not wear Beacon's uniform, instead favoring a heavier model. It looked suited for colder climates, rather than the general warmth that Vale enjoyed.

Maybe I should move to wherever he was from. I always favored cold weather. Probably no skirts there, either.

"Enten," Weiss sang, drawing my attention back to my Scroll. Adel had her face next to my white-haired teammates' now. I was surprised she allowed the second year to get so close. Her personal space was almost as important as to her as her appearance.

"Take Yang with you when you get me- no, on second thought, don't do that. Take _Ruby_ with you."

The Schnee heiress made a face because we both knew Ruby was far too earnest to get me something like a combat skirt. The girl didn't have a mean bone in her body.

"She's off with Yang and Blake exploring the city. So too bad."

"Weiss-"

"Oh," the girl exclaimed. "We're here! Bye Enten!"

"Weiss!? Weiss, you listen-"

The screen went blank so I dropped my Scroll in frustration and immediately started rubbing my eyes.

"Troublesome teammates?"

I grunted, taking my hand away from my face and using it to move my Scroll over to the bedside table. Blake's book sat there already, a bookmark she provided me indicating my progress. The table was on the left side of the bed originally but given I could not _move _the left side of my upper-body, the good doctor was kind enough to move it to my right.

"Something like that," I muttered, glancing over at the boy. He was approaching my bed now. Apparently he wanted to talk to me – I had no idea why. I'd never even met him before, and with good reason.

His uniform exposed him as a foreign student – they weren't set to arrive until Monday at the absolute earliest so he was here early. That didn't concern me overly much, given it was only a difference of a few days, but the fact that he was early and _inside _Beacon before Monday did.

He – and presumably his team – weren't supposed to be here yet.

But they were.

There was a reason there. The most obvious possibilities dealt with the tournament and the festival. Perhaps he wanted to gather information on his competition? Maybe he was here to confirm some rumors? Then again, he might also be here a few days early to learn his way around Beacon – it was a large castle, after all.

Too many variables, not enough knowledge. I needed to narrow the scope of the problem. Eliminate some possibilities.

"Finding your way around the school easily enough?"

"Ahh," he grunted, scratching the back of his head. "I'm learning, kinda just following the flow of students, you know?"

I did not. There were numerous 'flows' of students making their way around Beacon at any given time; add to that the fact that I very much doubted he knew which 'flow' belonged to which year and his explanation was flimsy at best, completely impossible at worst. Without knowing any faces, following Beacon students was a useless venture.

And that wasn't even considering the fact that each year was on different time tables. It was probably organized that way for this very reason, actually. Misdirection was more important than most students realized in this world. I could only imagine what people who were savvier in guerilla tactics could do if Vale's next generation of huntresses and hunters kept to the exact same schedule every day.

Even in my old life, I knew switching up routines was the best way to stay alive. It kept potential enemies guessing.

At any rate, this boy didn't come early to learn the layout of the school. Even lied about it. Another question without an answer…

"Right," I nodded. "That's a good way to figure out where all the main attractions are. Especially if you find the right group – you see a big guy in armor at all?"

"Lots of em," he laughed.

"Green armor," I elaborated with a sardonic smile. "_Very _big guy, usually has a rabbit faunus around him."

"Nah, is he a guide or something?"

"No. Just an easy student to pick out of a crowd!"

He laughed again. "I'll watch for him. Woulda been nice to have him – I ended up here because I lost my way."

And there it was.

The medical room was located in a relatively secluded section of Beacon's campus – not too far away from the academy's main thoroughfares but far enough that it was out of the way. I thought it done purposefully, for a reason: to limit the amount of traffic around it if an emergency were ever to crop up. No students went near it unless they were going to get help; this boy didn't follow students here.

Another lie.

He was looking for someone – why else would he show up in the medical room? And the only two possibilities were myself or the good doctor… Given he didn't ask for Madam Blanca's location…

'_What do you want with me, then?'_

I hummed. "You'll get it eventually. Though I find it odd that your school didn't give you a map of the campus or… _something _to help you find your way around."

"Yeah," he muttered. "Odd. Name's Mercury, by the way. Mercury Black."

A noncommittal answer. Did his school know he was here? The crest on his uniform identified him as a Haven student but… was he _actually _from Haven?

This situation reeked of deception. I didn't like it. My right hand reached for my Scroll.

"Enten Melkweg," I said, offering the boy a nod. "I'd shake your hand but… well, I'm kind of bedridden right now."

"No worries. That fancy, goody-two-shoes manner stuff ain't for me." He glanced around the medical room; the other beds were empty. "What put you in here anyway, doesn't seem like this place gets many visitors."

"Not _too _many," I confirmed. He was finally getting to the point, finally asking questions. Hopefully I'd be able to figure out what he wanted with me and who he _really _was. "As for what put me in here – it was a sparring match."

"Some sparring match," he scoffed, eying my shoulder. "Who did that to you?"

"Pyrrha Nikos," I said, watching his face closely. "You _may _have heard of her."

"Yeah, every… Wait a minute. My partner was in the dueling hall for that match. She wanted to see the 'Invincible Girl' fight and ended up seeing her get her butt whooped. That was you?"

Well that changed things. He didn't know who I was or what I did yesterday. If he came to the medical room to see _me _specifically, then he would have at least known my name and my face.

Maybe he _was _just a student that arrived early. He might just be irresponsible enough to wander around Beacon without knowing his way around the building and try to blindly gather intel-

But then why did he come _here _specifically. If he were following students around then he never would have made it out here.

No. He was here for a reason. Here to see _me _for a reason… but he didn't know who I was.

He arrived early. He lied about following students to get here. He said he was from Haven. His partner saw my match with Pyrrha. He-

That was it! His partner told him of the match and he came looking for me because I won-

But he would have known my name, then.

'_Damnit all.'_

"You alright," Mercury said. He was looking at my face through narrowed eyes and I only just realized that I'd been silent for nearly ten full seconds. "If you don't want to talk about the fight then that's cool."

He didn't come here because I beat Pyrrha, then. He came here, searched me out, without knowing my name or what I looked like because…

Because… why?

What associations did I have that would make him find me?

"No, it's alright," I said before I let the silence linger for too long again. "Just thinking about my teammates."

Time to start casting hooks. It would only be a matter of time until he bit. First up: my team.

"RWEBY, right," he said, nonchalant as he leaned against the wall. He glanced out of the window next to him. "I've heard a lot about you guys recently."

Success; on the first try too. Not bad. So he came looking for me because I was on RWEBY. Next, I needed to figure out what RWEBY did to catch his eye… Given he was probably hoping to compete in the tournament, it was likely just our standing in class, but… well, one could never be too careful.

"Only good things I hope."

He laughed. "My leader is impressed with you guys, so yeah."

"Thank you," I demurred. "We only got to where we were in our class rankings through a lot of hard work."

"Ranking," he asked. "Is that like a rating system or something?"

My mind screeched to a halt.

He sought me out because I was on team RWEBY and lied about how he found me in the process. His cover as a Haven student was shaky. His leader was interested in my team… and it _wasn't because we were ranked first in our class._

Why did they care about RWEBY and what were their intentions?

"Yeah," I said slowly, my eyes narrowing despite my best efforts to keep from looking suspicious. "It's essentially a conglomeration of each member's individual win-"

"Ugh. You sound like my partner now. She _loves _using big words because she thinks it makes her sound smart."

I scoffed, finding my patience for this boy start to wane. It didn't help that I needed to continue playing dumb. "I don't need to _sound _smart. I simply, _am_."

He laughed lowly. "It's like you're taking the words right out of her mouth."

Either this boy was incredibly good at deception or he was _incredibly_ simple minded.

No matter. I needed to focus. I needed to get through this conversation despite how annoying it had become. I needed to figure out why he and his team and this 'leader' were so interested in my team. It wasn't because we were first in our class – a major surprise – and RWEBY had no other defining achievements-

'_We have five members.'_

That was a possibility, though the fact that we had five members on our team wasn't _too _strange when so many other teams had three or even two. Deaths in the field were hard to deal with and often times, the victim's team just carried on, one man – or woman – down. Sometimes they were even split up between various other teams who lost a member, in an effort to get each one back to four.

No. I didn't think our five-person roster was interesting enough to warrant an early arrival for the tournament, a cross-campus trip to the medical room and a lie to cover up how he got here.

But if not that, then what? RWEBY was just like every other team at Beacon. We went to class, we did our homework, we worked on our weapons, we trained, we…

Could this be because I sabotaged Jaune? The boy himself might not have enough influence to have associates hunt me down but _Pyrrha_-

No, Mercury didn't know about the duel I fought against Pyrrha and he didn't know my face or my name. If he was here because I sabotaged Jaune then he would know what I looked like _and _my name, at the very least. There was also the small matter of that being something _I _did, rather than RWEBY. He only knew of RWEBY…

"Man, you get lost in thought a lot," the boy said, stepping away from the wall. "You sure that duel didn't mess with your head?"

"I'm alright," I said, waving away both his concern and my frustration. How was RWEBY different? "Just worrying about that skirt ordeal."

He laughed. "Well, Enten Melkweg, as much as I hate to cut this short… I've gotta go see my team for lunch. It was nice meeting you."

I scoffed. He wasn't getting away yet. Not so easily.

"You're light on your feet. Haven't used your hands to balance yourself at all. You fight with your lower body?"

He paused, his hands still in his pockets, and glanced back at me over his shoulder. "Maybe," he grinned. "I might be a dancer. Never know…"

"Dancers don't slouch. Necks stay elongated. Posture is important to them." Weiss was more of a dancer than this boy could ever be and she'd never taken a lesson in her life. "You're no dancer."

Mercury scoffed. "Man, and I thought _Emerald_ was bad-"

"You hate her," I cut across. The twitch in his eye, the curl in his lips, the way he said the name… it all indicated one thing and one thing only. "You don't work with her because you want to, you work with her because you _have _to… but that means someone is forcing the issue."

"Yeah, well, Haven wasn't exactly-"

"We both know you aren't from Haven." It was a calculated risk, throwing one of my suspicions out, but the way his eyebrows shot up told me the risk was worth it.

He – and his team, too – was not from Haven.

"So this _leader _is making you work with this _Emerald_. You have a cover story – you aren't supposed to be here. The next question is: why. Why are you here, Mercury? You came and sought me out specifically without knowing my name or my face – you knew of my team, though. You came here for RWEBY. But not because we're ranked first in our class. Not because we're competition in the tournament."

I paused, taking a moment to gauge his expression. His eyes were caught between narrowing and widening in surprise, his mouth was slightly open. He was startled. Surprised. For the first time since he entered the room, I saw his calm demeanor slip. His cool façade, break.

"No. You don't care about the tournament. It was just a convenient way for you to get inside the school. A convenient way for you to meet me…"

He swallowed heavily. "Wh-what the _fuck_?!"

A grin formed on my face. "Give me a reason, Mercury. Tell me why I shouldn't send this message on my Scroll to the Headmaster."

I held the device in question aloft so that he could see the message prompt – his eyes widened further.

"Whoawhoawhoa! Don't be so quick to judge! You don't even know if we-"

"So tell me," I demanded.

"Okay! _Dust_… of course they'd send me to talk to _you_." He shoved his hands back in his pockets, a scowl on his face now. "We're here to make things right in the world, alright?"

His voice was hushed now. That, combined with his earlier lies, did not speak well of him and his associates.

Those who kept to the shadows could rarely be trusted.

I need only look in the mirror to confirm that.

"Uh," he stammered when I raised an eyebrow. "_Shit. _She's gonna be _so _pissed! …I can't say-"

My hand moved toward my Scroll.

"Woahwoahwoah! She'll be even _more _pissed if you do that…"

"Not my problem."

He scoffed again, the scowl still on his face. "_Fuck it_. Fine. You want to know? We're here to scout your team out – because you kicked…" He stopped, his mouth moving wordlessly.

"Don't stop now," I prompted. There was a name there. I knew it.

"Tch. Because you kicked Neo's butt."

_-umbrella speared through the space my side previously occupied not a half second earlier. My arm burned but I raised Aegis to block her leg-_

They were in league with Neo and, by association, Torchwick and his thugs-for-hire. There were at least three of them and they were in Beacon.

"Well that settles it," I muttered, sending the message-

"_Waitwaitwait-we're not here to be your enemies!"_

My mind stopped abruptly for a brief moment. Of all the thoughts, of all the theories… _never _did I expect them to reach out to RWEBY with… with an offer…

"You attacked Schnee Dust Company. What the hell makes you think I want to work with you?"

"Well Torchwick didn't exactly _know _he was gonna be meeting a team with Weiss Schnee on it… We need dust. SDC is the biggest supplier-"

"Why do you need dust?"

He shrugged. Then, when I reached for my Scroll again: "No, no, wait! I seriously don't know. They're all tight lipped about _everything_. I only know what I need to know. I just know that I need to feel out your team with Emerald."

I hummed, my mind spinning. "Get out," I said to him absentmindedly. Too many thoughts, too many possibilities… I knew I couldn't trust them. Any of them. But I _could _use them. I could… I could benefit from this. _RWEBY _could benefit from this. I knew that. I just needed to figure out _how._

"And Mercury," I called as he reached the door. He looked over his shoulder, a mixture of wariness and fear on his face. "Any kind of deal, _any _kind at all, _will _involve you stopping your attacks on SDC _completely_."

"So… you're not gonna tell-"

"No," I responded. And that was a bold-faced lie. The Headmaster was going to be brought in on this… Neo, Torchwick and their associates were a step above the games I could play at Beacon. I would need help with this. "You're safe."

He nodded and, without any further conversation, left the room.

An explosive sigh escaped me seconds later and I collapsed back against my headboard. My mind was spinning with the possibilities.

I needed to talk to the Headmaster.

I needed to talk to my team.

But more than anything, I needed to _think_.

Talking could wait until tomorrow.

* * *

_Week 15 – Saturday, medical room_

I enjoyed a few hours of relative peace and quiet after Mercury left. I even managed to put his offer from my mind and focus on the Headmaster's app.

It was both more difficult and easier than I expected to expand the map over the entirety of Vale. The Headmaster had come through for me – _somehow_ – and gotten me access to the city's main broadcast network: the towers that were used for television and radio shows and the like.

Connecting to, and maintaining the connection to, those radio towers was far more difficult than I initially expected. I was able connect to the network but due to the unorthodox nature of the program I was designing, the connection was dropped every time I moved out of range of one tower and into the range of another. Normally the signal transition would be seamless but… for some reason I was having trouble with it.

On the bright side, I was able to get almost the exact same information from those radio towers that I got from Beacon's wireless network. That meant it would be much, much, _much_ easier to transition the app over the city-wide dataset once I figured out my connection issues.

The medical room doors swung open again and I placed my Scroll down on my lap. I was expecting Mom and Phoebe soon, seeing them would be a nice relief-

"Pyrrha," I said, surprised, when I looked up and found the redhead staring back at me.

She licked her lips and, for a brief moment, there was an uneasy silence hanging over our heads. I didn't know what to expect from the redhead in the aftermath of our match. I'd heard her punishment was harsh though the girls but I didn't know the specifics… she might be bitter and resentful toward me over that now, too.

For my part, I bore her no ill will. While it was true she dealt what could have been a lethal blow to me, I did not die from it. In fact, I benefited from it. I found out… _something _kept my blood pressure within normal levels until the wound was patched up properly which meant that the same something was able to produce blood prodigiously fast for me.

My Semblance, perhaps. I was unable to look into it until I was released from the medical room, unfortunately.

"One thing," Pyrrha said at length, drawing my attention back to her. It was a close thing though – her voice was so quiet I almost missed it. She paced closer. "I need to know to _one _thing, and then I never want to speak to you again."

Evidently my clandestine activities effected the girl more than I thought. Either that or she was bitter about receiving her first loss at my hands. I didn't know which one it was… hell, it might be a combination of the two.

My fellow classmates' egos were so annoyingly fragile... One insult would set Cardin off, a glance from Weiss would break Jaune's composure. And now, Pyrrha: not only did I best her, but I hurt her friend, too.

A sigh escaped me. And here I was, hoping for a relaxing evening with my family.

Oh well. With the redhead here, at least I had a source of entertainment.

"Why Pyrrha, I didn't know you felt-"

"Enough," she spat, stopping beside my bed. Now that she was closer, I noticed her eyes possessed prominent shadows underneath them, they were bloodshot, too. Her hair looked a little less… pristine and her headdress was nowhere to be seen.

"If you had your weapons I might feel threatened right now," I quipped, my voice dry.

"You talk a lot. I want to know why you did it."

"Why I did…"

"You know what!"

"No, no, I'm afraid-"

"_Jaune _you bastard!"

"Well, why didn't you just say so?"

Her eyes widened and her fists clenched. She bared her teeth at me and it occurred to me that I'd probably pushed her far enough. Being cooped up in a hospital bed all day had left me a little stir crazy – the Mercury conversation didn't help matters at all – and Pyrrha Nikos probably wasn't the best choice when it came to poking fun at people…

"_So help me-_"

"Alright, alright, don't get your panties in a bunch. Have a seat."

She wanted to know why I did what I did? Fine. I had no issue telling her; my afternoon was shot anyway. Hell, the entire _day _was shot. But this was a long story. A complicated story. A story that, frankly, I did not know how to start.

"I'm not-"

"Pyrrha," I said flatly. "Sit."

Something – whether it be my voice or my expression or the look in my eyes – must have gotten through to her, because she scowled and roughly pulled the visitor's chair up to the side of the bed.

I exhaled deeply and shut my eyes even as the redhead sat down, still huffing and puffing.

Was there anything I could gain from this? The redhead seemed pretty set in her enmity for me so I doubted I could play the sympathy card well enough to garner any good will. Perhaps I could at least change her opinion of me enough that she was neutral where I was concerned… That would be nice.

Not likely, though. I wasn't any good at playing the sympathy card – that was for Ruby and Phoebe. Instead, I needed to direct her anger elsewhere. At Cardin, maybe-

"Today, if you will."

Rude girl. Though to be perfectly fair, I was somewhat to blame for her current state of mind.

Well, maybe more than just somewhat.

"The beginning, then," I muttered slowly, rubbing at my eyes. I loathed talking about this stuff but… well, I suppose she deserved to know. Besides, I might even find a way to make this benefit either myself or my team. Who knew?

I began: "I was three… or was it four? Two? …I don't know, the point is, I was _young_."

Too young to rightfully remember anything clearly, but that day… that _one _day was still as clear in my mind as it was when it happened. I could replay it, scene by scene, as though I were living it over again, in the here and now. The Boarbatusk, the blood… The day the bogeyman became real.

"And," the girl demanded.

"So impatient," I muttered, rolling my eyes. My good humor was fading fast in the face of the conversation subject and my companion's bitter attitude. "You want to know why I did what I did to Jaune? Fine. But this is a long story. A complicated story. I'll tell you it, _all _of it, but if you want me to do this you have keep your mouth shut."

The girl scoffed. "You say that like it actually _justifies _what you did."

"Justification, Pyrrha Nikos, is subjective," I replied, my voice terse. Who was she to question me?

"There's no excuse for what you did."

"I beg to differ."

"You had no-"

"_You don't know me!"_

The girl looked taken aback for a moment – I rarely shouted – but blinked a moment later and then the surprise fled from her face.

"Fine," she bit out. "_Fine_. Tell your stupid story."

"Gladly," I said wryly, bowing as much as I could. "Your majesty."

"You-"

"My parents died when I was… let's say three. Three years old, barely old enough to hold a conversation. _Far _too young to understand what the _fuck _was going on when a boarbatusk appeared in that _thrice-damned _forest and _murdered_ them in front of me."

I swallowed heavily, relishing the silence that followed my outburst. Finally, _finally, _I managed to shut her up.

"That was the day the monsters in my closet became real, Pyrrha Nikos. That was the day I found out what the world was _truly _like. Morals have no place here. The strong survive; the weak perish."

She shook her head. "That's not true. The weak are protected by the strong."

"And who protects the strong?"

"Their _friends_."

"Wonderful, so far I'm in the right-"

"You tried to _kill _Jaune!"

"I did no such thing!"

"Liar. Liar!"

A scoff escaped me even as I leaned back against the bedrest behind me; my hand came up to rub at my eyes.

"My parents died that day," I continued airily, sarcastically. I only just managing to keep from arguing my point further. "They died that day and I remember every. single. second…"

_-the ground rushed up to meet me and my mother's choked screams abruptly ended, wheezing took their place. She was gasping for breath, desperately clinging-_

I rid myself of the memories with a practiced ease. They plagued me often enough that was almost a routine, now. Easily dealt with and easily forgotten. No, the nightmares were the real danger.

There was no escaping those. Not in here, not without my family or my team nearby.

"Imagine, Pyrrha Nikos, imagine what I went through in that-"

"Oh boo f-"

"-_in that forest_," I continued loudly, cutting the ignorant girl off. "I was three-fucking-years-old. _Three_. I saw my parents murdered. I heard it. I lived it! I…" I stopped and took a deep breath, willing my mind to remain serene. Calm! I needed to stop getting so worked up. That would only lead to me making mistakes and approaching this conversation irrationally.

'_Little too late for that.'_

I rubbed at my eyes again and made eye contact with the redhead. Only a vacant, unimpressed stare greeted me.

'_Either she does not understand the trauma or she is trying to be difficult. I'd wager it being a mixture of the two.'_

"While you lived, safe and sound, behind your home's walls, I was off nearly getting killed by Grimm. _Don't,_" I spat, cutting her off when she opened her mouth to speak. I was more than fed up with her attitude. She thought she had it hard? She thought she knew fear?

She didn't know _shit_.

"You lived a hard life, Pyrrha, I'll grant you that. You probably trained for hours, every single day of every single week or every single year, to get where you are today, yeah?"

Again, the same blank stare, this time through narrowed eyes, was my only response.

"Hours and hours and hours. Every single day of your life, to the exclusion of all else. All to become… what? Stronger? To be a champion? To be famous? Why'd you do it? Why'd you train-"

"Because I wanted to be the best," she said tersely. "I don't appreciate yo-"

"And you _are _the best," I confirmed. "You're the most famous, most feared student in our year!"

The girl flinched – it was just a twitch of her eye but I managed to catch it.

Interesting.

"Get to the point," she snapped.

I laughed lowly. She thought she knew fear. She thought she knew what a hard life was because she trained all day and socially shot herself in the foot. She was determined. She had a strength of will that very few did. But still, she knew nothing. _Nothing. _Any member of RWEBY would scoff at the redhead's life. Any member of RWEBY would have _loved _to have the redhead's life.

"I trained the same way, Pyrrha," I muttered, leaning forward. "But it was only after my adoptive father died to _another _Grimm attack… Just a few short years ago actually… He died-"

_-roaring mixed with terrified screams and painful yelps and I picked myself up off the dirt just in time to see the __**beast **__dive at dad-_

"-and I realized," I continued, only stopping to scoff at my own failing. Stupid, stupid me. I realized it only too late. Too late! Always too late! "I realized that the strong survive and the weak _die_.

"_No_, the str-"

"But I didn't want to be weak," I continued loudly over the redhead's protests. "I didn't want to be weak and I certainly didn't want to die! So I trained! I trained because I was so _fucking _afraid of that _stupid, stupid, __**stupid **__dead_ Grimm that I thought it was hunting me! And my family! And _everyone I ever cared about!"_

I stopped abruptly and sucked in a much-needed breath of air. The outburst left me short of breath.

"Do you understand now, Nikos!? Do you know why I did what I did!?"

She recoiled ever so slightly, her mouth moving.

But no sound escaped her.

"You think you had it hard," I growled. "You know _nothing_. _Nothing! _I'll see my team through this life and the next and I'll do _whatever _is necessary to make it happen."

And still, no response.

I grunted, finally regaining my breath. My eyes shut of their own accord and I tried desperately to center myself. To regain my composure.

That outburst was un-needed but the girl had pushed me toward it in all her self-righteous, finger-wagging from her holier-than-thou horse confidence… She didn't know me. She didn't have _any _right to judge me. Not when the hardest part about her life was having to relearn some social skills that she should have learned as a child.

"I," she started, swallowing. "You're wrong. You're not- You don't need to do this! You never should have done this! This- It was potential murder! _Murder, _Melkweg! The world isn't- It's not…"

Quaint. She was a dreamer. If only Remnant would allow dreamers to flourish… I'd become one readily. It was much easier to just _assume _things would go your way, after all, than to plan for them so that they actually did end in your favor.

"Right," I muttered, just tired now. This idiot girl needed to leave and I needed to rest. I didn't want Phoebe and mom to deal with me in this state of mind, not when I only got to see them so rarely. First Mercury, now Pyrrha. _Ugh._ "We'll see if you change your tune when one of your friends d-"

"My friends won't die," she said adamantly, rising from her chair. "They'll _never _die. _Never!_ I won't lose them, no matter what!"

Well that was interesting. For all she claimed to be different than me, to not understand my actions, she'd just about quoted me word for word.

"Oh," I said slowly, my mind spinning. "You sure sound confident. What have you done to make sure they survive? How far would you go to make sure they lived?"

"Not as far as you," she growled, a scowl on her face now. "_You _went too far. Putting Jaune's life in danger was completely and utterly uncalled for."

Such a hypocrite. She claimed she wouldn't kill to protect her friends right after having dealt me a lethal injury. For all she liked to pretend she was noble, she was just as determined as I.

"You know," I started, rubbing at my eyes. "You and I are more alike-"

"I'm _nothing _like you!"

"More alike than you realize," I finished.

She scoffed and turned away. "I've heard all I need to hear. Don't talk to me. Ever again."

Who the hell did this girl think she was? To give me orders and lay down the law like that? After having harassed me for her own interests? After flinging insult after insult at my actions and my logic?

"It's easy, _Pyrrha_," I called, "for people like us to say we'd die for our friends. But it's hard… oh so _hard _to admit that we'd kill for them."

That was truth. Utter and complete truth. I'd already lived a life – losing this one to make sure the girls could continue theirs was something I'd do in a heartbeat. Remnant hadn't gotten to them – it hadn't poisoned them so completely yet. They were still, for the most part, innocent; I intended it to stay that way. I'd gladly toss away my morals and make the hard decisions so that they didn't have to.

Pyrrha Nikos, I realized, was the same way. For her… I'd guess at it being her lack of social skills. She couldn't have had many friends growing up, not with the amount of training she was rumored to do, not with the work it took to build herself up to be a four-time champion of the Mistral tournament.

"I think you would," I muttered as the girl paused, her fingertips brushing the door's surface. "I think you would kill for your-"

"_Never."_

I tapped my left shoulder with my good hand.

"I disagree."

Her eyes widened and she swallowed visibly. Her hands curled into fists and, without any further ceremony, she turned and marched out of the medical room, her spine rigid.

Once the door closed, I shut my eyes and sighed heavily. I was _tired. _Just… _tired_.

The girls thought I had an answer to every solution. That I knew what to do and when to do it to get what I wanted from people. Like I was some kind of omniscient god that always found a way to succeed. Like the knowledge necessary for a conversation just fell into my lap because I was a programmer or because I had more life experience than they did.

If only.

I was only human. I had fears, doubts and insecurities just like everyone else. My family and friends were my weak points and the fact that I considered them weaknesses at all spoke of a fear to become attached to other people in the first place. I was not outgoing nor was I social unless forced to be. I could act, I could pretend, I could keep myself aloof, but behind that cold façade lay a human being just as vulnerable as any other.

I was worried about Pyrrha Nikos, now. I was worried about what she was capable of doing; I made an enemy in her when I sent Cardin after Jaune and now I regretted ever doing it. The redhead's reputation, influence and political power was much greater than mine and, though that may change in the future, I would likely have to deal with that in the here and now.

That fact was proof that I did not, in fact, have all the answers. That not all conversations went my way. But that was alright… That was life. It mattered not how many times you were knocked down; it mattered how many times you got back up.

And I would always, _always_ get back up.

* * *

_Week 15 – Saturday, medical room_

"Momma I see it! The big cross!"

Phoebe's voice. I could hear mom mutter something back to her in a voice far more controlled than my little sister's.

A smile stretched across my face and my fingers quickly finished a half compiled message for Yang: "Gotta go – family here. Gonna show Phoebe 'Blocks'."

Blocks was my name for my Tetris recreation. It wasn't done just yet – I still hadn't gotten the completed rows to disappear correctly, but it could still be played without that feature. The objective just became to fit as many of the shapes as you could on the screen before you went over the top bar.

"Enten," Phoebe called as the doors slammed open to admit her. "Enten!"

'_She got taller.'_

Same panda-esque ears atop her head, same black markings on her eyes, but the tiny girl had to have grown another inch since I last saw her. She was probably close to four feet now…

"Hey squirt," I said as she scrambled onto my bed. I caught her before she could throw herself at me and contained her bear hug to my right side – the good doctor made it clear that nothing could touch my left shoulder… not unless I wanted to be holed up in here for several additional days. "I like your ears."

She giggled. "I like yours too!"

"They are pretty cool – Hey mom."

"Hello sweetie," she responded as she neared my bed. There was a crease in her brow and a small frown on her face that suggested she was worried. That made sense – she was always protective of Phoebe and I, even more so after dad's death. "How are you feeling? The Academy only told me you were stable and that it happened during a sparring match… how you get this injured during a _practice _match is beyond me."

"It's rare," I assured her. "I'm only the second one in my year to end up here."

The first being Cardin Winchester. Cause: a badly broken jaw.

"Are you a mummy," Phoebe asked, brazenly reaching for my shoulder.

"No," I replied, catching her hand and directing it toward mother. "_That's _your mummy."

"Nooo," she whined. "A _mummy_. Like… with band- err- band-aids and stuff!"

"No mummies here," I said dryly as I lifted my scroll up in front of me. "But I _do _have a surprise for you…"

"A surprise?! Is it from Ruby?!"

"No, you little snot," I laughed. "It's a new game _I_ made."

The girl looked down at my Scroll when I wiggled it, her brow furrowed.

"On your Scroll? Don't you do programs on there?"

"Games _are_ programs."

"Then… but… what are programs?"

"Almost everything on this Scroll."

"Oh. Are the pictures programs?"

"No. Those are different."

"Why?"

"Because they don't do anything. They just show up."

"Why?"

"Why don't they do anything?"

"Yeah."

"Because they're just pictures, silly." I was getting side-tracked. "Tell you what – do you want to see my game?"

"Yeah," she cheered, suddenly all smiles, as she plopped down next to me. I used my good arm to move her in between my legs; it was easier to show her Blocks that way…especially considering I only had one good arm.

"Enten, wait," mom said quietly, reaching out for my Scroll, a soft smile on her face. "I want a picture of the two of you."

I obliged her and, one picture and a far-too-long explanation of 'Blocks' later, Phoebe sat, completely absorbed in the game while mother and I spoke quietly.

"She's been talking about this all day," she said, smiling fondly at the child.

"I am pretty awesome," I quipped, watching as Phoebe bungled up a rotation and stacked two of the shapes instead of fitting them together.

"Yes," mom laughed. "Yes, you are."

"Ahh…"

"And still horrible at accepting praise," she continued.

I shrugged. "Humble is my middle name."

"And here I thought it was Ruim."

"Arguable," I shot back, grinning. "So how are things back in the village? Is Mrs. G still playing babysitter at the park?"

"Yes she is; that woman is a blessing. Phoebe loves her."

"Are the guard dogs still healthy?"

Mom laughed. "Yes, Mel's dogs are perfectly fine. And still very, very loud."

"Probably for the best. Without them the town would have nothing to talk about."

Her smile fell suddenly and she frowned ever so slightly.

"Mom," I asked cautiously. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, it's probably nothing," she said, shaking her head. "Just a local boy stirring up trouble. Spouting all sorts of aggressive nonsense about the faunus and Vale… He's young and naïve. I hope his parents reign him in soon or… well, the peacekeepers have been around more often than before. I worry for him."

"I'm sure it'll be fine. Who is it? Eik? Wortel?"

"Wortel – yes."

"Really," I muttered, idly casting my eyebrows up in an arch. "I never had him pegged for a trouble-maker. He was always a quiet one."

"Yes, well, it started recently and suddenly. None of us know what to make of it… But enough of that, how are the girls? They were _so _nice when you brought them over…"

"They're doing well," I said, noting that Phoebe was paying attention to the conversation now. I forgot about that facet of her personality. Her fanaticism wasn't quite done justice in our letters… maybe I could get mom a Scroll with my monthly allowance. It'd be nice to see their faces more often.

"Ruby, Yang and Blake are all exploring the city today – looking at the decorations going up, the venues, the shops… all that stuff. Weiss took an upperclassman with her to go shopping for me."

"Weiss is gonna buy you stuff," Phoebe interjected, a curious look on her face.

"Yes she is. She thinks I'll look good in a skirt."

My sister made a face. "Nuh-uh. Boys don't wear skirts! Girls do! You're not allowed."

"That's what _I _said!"

"I'm sure you'll look wonderful in a skirt, dear," mom interjected.

I laughed. "Suffice it to say, my team is doing well."

"Hey Enten?"

"What's up squirt?"

"Why is it called blocks?"

"Because those shapes are blocks," I responded, pointing to one of the 'L' shaped pieces that she managed to stack on an 'I' shaped piece.

She fell silent for a moment – mom gave me an amused look – and then: "Those are squares."

"Blocks are squares."

"Why?"

"Well… because they have four sides."

"Are they all equal?"

"All what? The sides?"

"Yeah."

"Ahh, I suppose they don't have to be, no."

"But squares have equal sides!"

"That they do."

"Enten! So blocks aren't squares!"

My mouth moved soundlessly for a few seconds because I'd just been corrected by a six year-old and that _never _happened. It was a novel feeling. It reminded me that, though she may not have a lot of knowledge, Phoebe's mind was as sharp as a knife.

"Right you are," I muttered wryly amidst mom's laughter. "I forgot how adamant you can be."

"What's adam… ada-men?"

"Adaman_t_. It means… confident. You're very confident, Phoebe. And that's a good quality for a huntress to have."

"Oh," she hummed, leaning back against my chest with a wide smile on her face. She fell quiet and I-

My scroll chimed.

"Did I win," Phoebe asked excitedly.

"No," I murmured. "Just a message… from Yang."

And it had a picture.

A bad feeling suddenly swept over me.

Phoebe leaned over my Scroll suddenly, blocking my view of the message, and immediately started giggling.

"She missed her face," the girl chortled.

"Phoebe," I said calmly. "Can I see my Scroll, please?"

The girl grunted affirmatively and lifted up the device for all to see-

'_Oh, she's dead.'_

Apparently Yang thought Blake needed her picture taken… but Phoebe was right: Yang _missed _Blake's face.

And took a picture of her-

"Enten," mother said in her you're-in-trouble voice. "Why is Blake's _chest _on your Scroll?"

"Ahh… Yang decided-"

"Don't bring Yang into this. She's such a sweet girl – she'd _never _do this… Do I need to have a talk with the headmaster about rooming with girls?"

"What," I yelped. Did she seriously think I'd take pictures of my teammates like that? "Mom, I'd never do something-"

My Scroll chimed again and Phoebe promptly exploded into a new fit of giggles.

"She's a really bad picture-taker! She got Blake's bottom!"

Mom turned back to me, an unamused glare leveled at me.

'_So, so, __**so**__dead.'_

"See! _I _didn't take those pictures!"

"Then why are they on your Scroll?"

"Because you can send them to each other – it's how Scrolls work. I-"

The Scroll chimed again.

I immediately shut my eyes even as Phoebe cooed.

"It's Yang," the girl cheered. "I know because her scarf is the same color as my hat!"

Scarf. The blonde's scarf was near her head… maybe that meant she actually took a decent picture to send to me while my _little sister was using my Scroll!_

I opened my eyes.

Mom gasped. "Phoebe! Give me that thing!"

"But momma," the girl whined, reluctantly handing over the device. "I wanna see the pictures."

Of course she would. Of course Yang Xiao Long would have the gall to send me a picture of _her own cleavage_ when my sister was using my Scroll. Of course she would.

'_No one will find the body. __**No one**__.'_

"Enten," mom snapped, waving my Scroll at me. "Turn this thing off!"

"Yes mother," I responded in kind, accepting the device when she shoved it into my hands.

"Good," she continued. Then, to my sister: "Phoebe, why don't you go look out that window over there – I think I saw one of Beacon's airships land!"

"_No way!"_

And just like that, I was left alone.

* * *

**A/N: **Hello, hello, hello! Hope this fine Friday finds all of you in good health and humor!

(06/22/2016): Revised.

Not much to stay about this one… I think it does all the talking for itself!

**Guest-Numero Dos: **Deathclaws…ugh. You know, I've done this before – as in, like, four times before. You'd think I might start catching myself by now haha. Thanks for pointing that out and thanks for the review! (And on the laser pointer part – that never crossed my mind though now it is. It'd be some nice comic relief, probably at Enten's expense!)

** : **Yes. Your review captures her perfectly! Thanks for your thoughts!

**Gravenimage: **To the pairing question: maybe… that's not set in stone, not like the plot. As for Pyrrha's anger: we saw how short she got with Cardin in the show when he was just picking on Jaune, but for someone to try and kill her partner? Food for thought – I guess it could go either way. The more extreme route just worked for the plot. Thanks for your review!

**Name-Change Guest: **I'll answer your reviews as long as there's a question of-sorts in it. No worries about changing your name – unless you want to, of course! As for your prediction… I'm not 100% sure yet. I think Enten has passed the line of no return with civility regarding Pyrrha. It'll be interesting to write out their conflict, though, for sure. Thanks for your review!

**Dancingwolf21: **Thanks for your kind words – I'm glad you like the fic so much!

**Posidon29: **I tried writing stories with set pairings before and found I didn't like it. I can't predict how the characters will change through the course of a fic and having a set-in-stone pairing in place restrains them in how they develop. If some romance does develop… it'll be spontaneous! Thanks for your review!

Hope all of you enjoyed it!

-Phailen


	25. Chapter 25

_Week 15 – Saturday_

She ducked under my arm and immediately lashed out with her leg, impacting my weak side and staggering me in the process. My breath was forcefully, painfully extracted from my lungs even as her umbrella caught me under the chin.

I stumbled backward fully this time but managed to block her latest kick with Ultimatum. The follow-up umbrella-jab was redirected and I lashed out with my shield, desperate to buy some time to collect myself.

The weapon impacted her face and, for a split second, relief surged through me.

But then, she shattered into millions of glass fragments.

My eyes narrowed and I sucked in a breath just as I felt something hit the back of my legs. They failed under the pressure and my knees hit the pavement. I threw my left arm out and caught myself just as her leg swung around and hit me on the side of the head.

Pain.

My vision flashed and I forgot what I was doing for a brief moment. When awareness returned to me, the ground was mere inches from my face and-

A grunt escaped me with the collision but I fought through the pounding, pulsating pain – agonizing and relentless as it was – to flip myself over onto my back.

Just in time to see her umbrella descend upon my face. Her leg stomped down on my shield arm and her other one planted a knee in my chest.

Breathless, it was all I could do to catch the weapon with my left hand.

A struggle ensued. Her strength and her leverage against my strength and my desperation. My vision was still shaky and my lungs had yet to recover completely from her onslaught but still, I held my own. Even as she grunted in exertion and sweat beaded on my forehead, the umbrella shaking between us, I held my own.

She threw her weight behind the umbrella and the strain on my left arm increased. My right arm was still pinned and my legs weren't responding and her face was twisted into an expression of pure malevolence and hatred.

This woman wanted me dead.

She opened her mouth-

"Enten?! Melkweg!?"

-And out of it came a boy's voice. Panicked. Frantic. One that I did not recognize.

She hissed under her breath and redoubled her efforts to spear me through with the pointed tip of her weapon, drawing me from my thoughts even as she opened her mouth again-

"Hey! Get up!"

Her form flickered and suddenly I was-

Lying in Beacon's medical room, blinking the sleep from my eyes and _she _wasn't there anymore but she just was! It must be one of her illusions. One of her tricks. She wouldn't just give up, not when she had me so close-

A hand grasped my shoulder suddenly-

Blindly, I lashed out with my left arm on instinct and _pain_. _**Pain!**_

"Fuck," I yelled, swinging my other arm up to grasp at my shoulder because why the hell was it hurting-

My body convulsed when I touched my shoulder and I gasped, rapidly blinking my eyes to get them to focus. She was _here_. She was _always _here! I needed to focus. I needed my wits about me. I needed-

"Enten," a voice, close by, said. I thought, for a second, that it was Neo… but this was a boy's voice. It was not her voice and… and this was not the warehouse where we were fighting…

I was in Beacon's medical room? I… Yes, sure enough, as the shadows of the room faded in the face of Remnant's moonlight, I could make out the familiar beds and tables lining the long, narrow room. The heart monitor was racing. Where was the doctor? Where was…

'_Oh.'_

A nightmare. Another nightmare. They plagued me so often now that I should be able to readily identify one once awake but… the waking mind and the sleeping mind were nothing alike. They might as well live in two separate realities, given how hard it was to move between them.

A sigh escaped me and I rubbed at my face.

"Hey! Dude!? Are you done?"

The boy. Right. I looked in his direction and nearly came face-to-face with a blond that was probably just about as tall as I was. He was wearing a muscle shirt and shorts and the unkempt hair atop his head was flecked with something… was that blood?

I narrowed my eyes, trying to focus.

"Blood," I asked groggily.

He shifted and his hands were lifted up to his hairline. Amidst the movement, I saw a tail swing behind him, agitated.

"Faunus," I muttered this time, still confused. "Why are you here?"

Who was he? What did he want? So soon after Mercury's visit too…

The boy stopped messing with his hair abruptly. "Oh! You gotta get outta bed, now! I went to Weiss but she was all snobby and wouldn't let me come with her and then your… what was it- some other guy came along and backed her up and then-"

"Hold up," I cut across, holding up my hand and trying – unsuccessfully – to wake myself up. "What. Are. You. Doing. Here."

"_Shit,_" he spat. "Your teammates. Torchwick and his cronies have them!"

Suddenly, wakefulness came very, _very _easily.

* * *

_Week 15 – Sunday, Vale's Docks_

My injured arm was wrapped. It laid, secure, against my body and out of the way. I needed Sun's – the blond who woke me – help to do it, but we managed once we pilfered some bandages from Beacon's medical stores.

We were on the tram now, flying over Vale's residential district on our way to the docks at speeds that conventional automobiles could not hope to match. The interior was plain. Light from below occasionally filtered into the railcar in which Sun and I sat but, by and large, the car was mostly dark.

My Scroll was still attempting to sync with the nearest radio tower. There were two more after this one between us and the docks so I wasn't concerned with it right now. I knew where Yang, Ruby and Blake were. I knew their location, even if they could not answer my messages. I knew where Weiss was. I knew Coco Adel, Fox Alistair, Hvid Gamle and Neilikka Kyyhky were with her, traveling by car. I knew they were heading to the south side of the docks and I knew RWEBY's missing members were on the north side.

I knew all of this because of one little application.

Fear fled me in the face of this information. I knew there were thirty-nine people within a half-mile of my teammates. I knew four of those people were currently in the warehouse where they were being held. I knew none of those people were near my teammates, provided they still had their Scrolls on them.

They did. Their signals were moving, ever so slightly, consistently.

They were safe. For now.

This I knew.

The Headmaster was wise to have me develop this.

The map flickered and froze, indicating that I just moved out of range of a radio tower. Immediately, it began searching for the next closest one.

"Their numbers are worrying," I muttered to Sun, attracting the blond's attention. We were alone in the railcar but for one other person – a man, I thought, though his heavy overcoat made it hard to tell. That was common for Vale's homeless – wearing heavy outer-clothing, especially given the weather was starting to cool – so I paid him little thought. I just needed to word my statements carefully, just in case he wasn't actually asleep like his steady breathing suggested.

"Last time," I continued when Sun only stared. "The leader only had a dozen thugs with him. There are more, now. A lot more."

"Last time?"

I nodded. "A boy ran away from school, my leader went after him – she has a big heart… sometimes it gets her in trouble. That's partially why I'm so unforgiving. I don't want her to lose that. It's part of what makes her, _her_."

"You mean Ruby," the blond asked even as the man in the corner grunted and muttered something under his breath, evidently in the throes of a dream.

"Yes. Let me make the hard choices. I'll bear the burden. Eventually, though…"

Eventually, I wouldn't be able to keep her – and the rest of the team – from the darker side of a huntress' life. We were already starting down that path now, I could feel it… And it was all thanks to a fool that left Beacon, a fool that refused to accept the help that was offered to him.

A scoff escaped me. That was the night I found out about Jaune's secret. The night I began to use him to RWEBY's advantage. It was ironic, in my mind, that RWEBY only met Torchwick, Neo and their cronies because the blond wasn't mature enough to realize he needed help.

In a way, I was still cleaning up his mess from that night.

So be it.

"Eventually," I muttered, watching as the map started moving again. There were more bodies, now. Fourty-three. "Eventually, I'm… terrified that I won't be able to keep them from it. From the violence. The betrayals. The darkness. So, I'm trying to prepare them for it, instead."

Sun did not speak for several seconds, only swallowing audibly. When he did, his voice was quiet.

"That's depressing, man. You really think our lives are gonna be so horrible?"

"How many hunters and huntresses die of old age?"

"…Not a lot," he admitted, solemn. "But if we go out fighting the Grimm, then that's a worthy death. We'll be helping Remnant as a whole. No better way to go."

"True enough," I agreed, watching as one of the dots in the girls' warehouse moved to another, unlabeled one. They were all obfuscated, I could not see their names, I could only see their positions. "But Grimm aren't the only thing we fight."

I turned my Scroll around and extended it across the aisle, toward the metal bench he was sitting on, opposite my own.

"There are fourty-three of them now. Ruby, Yang and Blake are here," I said, indicating the girls' location on the Scroll. "There are four people inside the warehouse with them. Three of them are clustered into the group and one is near the southern exit."

I retracted the device and switched to a picture of one of the sheet metal warehouses that Vale used to store its goods.

"This is the model of warehouse they are in. There's a large door, for machinery, on the east side; additionally, there are two more doors – one on the south side and one on the north side. The north side is our best bet. Most of the activity is occurring south of the warehouse in question; it's on the outskirts."

He nodded, his brow still furrowed. There was a small, downward curl to his lips and he was fidgeting with his hands.

"Nervous," I asked.

"Didn't realize there were so many," he muttered. "But that's not it…"

"Next stop: Vale Docks," the feminine voice called over the intercom. The light filtering through the windows began to slow in time with the tram.

"Best deal with it now," I muttered, standing and stretching out my good arm. "We're here. We're getting the girls back and we're probably going to make a few enemies along the way… But they already know about me. Not you. Are you sure-"

"Yeah!" The boy was standing now and his expression was twisted into one of anger. "Of course I'm coming with! I'm not just gonna… _abandon_ Blake and them to those bastards! Why do you think I came to get you after your teammate brushed me off?!"

"I'm glad you've dealt with your doubts," I muttered, a smile on my face. Sun was a good guy, he reminded me of Ruby, in a way. "Because we're about to walk into the worst odds I've faced before and Weiss is still thirty minutes out."

Why she and my hierarchy members didn't use the tram was beyond me. It ran directly into the northern section of the docks… though, admittedly, it _was _largely an unknown. It also didn't have a hub too close to Beacon; maybe they thought taking a vehicle directly from the academy would be faster?

I forced the thoughts from my mind with a grunt. I had more important things to worry about right now.

Sun and I were about to walk into a potential fight wherein we faced an entire gang of fighters with unknown skill levels. We were students and I was down to one arm. My teammates were on the outskirts of the danger area and the peacekeepers had dropped the ball, again. My call to their dispatch was answered with an automated message about some sort of chaos in southern Vale.

We were alone. But that alright. I was used to that.

"Let's go," I said, stepping out of the tram car and into the chilly Vale night. Before me, the dockyards stretched out for miles, a maze of sheet metal buildings that held countless valuable goods.

'_Hold on, I'm almost there.'_

* * *

_Week 15 – Sunday, Vale's Docks_

The White Fang's emblem was very, very familiar to me.

When I was a child, I would see it placed all over my neighborhood. It showed up on store windows, on newspapers, on toys, on food packaging… it was everywhere. The faunus youth would draw it on sidewalks, adults would wear it on their clothing, some would even put it on their skin.

It was a symbol of pride. Faunus pride.

That was before the change occurred. Before the White Fang came under new leadership, a young radical that had never tasted war, I thought. The group quickly became violent and the faunus who only wanted peace quickly stopped supporting it. The emblems largely disappeared from public eye and instead started showing up in hidden places. In back alleys where the group's supporters would meet or on little slips of paper to be used as pass cards.

It went from a symbol of pride, to a symbol of hatred. A symbol of a new, radical generation that was tired of putting up with humanity's bigotry.

I could sympathize, certainly. I even considered joining the White Fang, before Beacon, before my team. Back when I only had my family that I needed to care for. The group was appealing to me, then – they offered protection in return for those who had fighting talent and I knew I could fight, even then.

That was then, this was now.

Now, the White Fang was working with Torchwick and Neo – if the 'umbrella bitch' that Sun described was, in fact, that woman.

Troubling.

"They moved," Sun muttered, disgruntled. "They're in between us and the warehouse now."

Drawn from my thoughts, I grunted noncommittedly in response. No longer could we sneak by the White Fang – faunus had night vision – and there were seven men and women between us and the warehouse where my team was being held.

"Look," I muttered, bringing up my Scroll. "The map just finished sync'ing with the new tower. There are still… twenty-six people on the other side of the warehouse, near the south door. Over here, there's only seven. The other ones… they must have left in those airships we saw flying away."

"So we don't have much time," the blond said quickly, glancing out of the door window in our warehouse. The structures were arranged in rows and we were currently one row away from Ruby, Yang and Blake. The White Fang members were moving two shipping containers – both labeled 'SDC' – in the space between the two rows. There was only open ground between us and the warehouse that held my team, no sneaking was possible.

Sun must have come to the same conclusion, because he said: "Okay, so they'll see us, but we can take them! We just-"

"And I thought _Yang _was battle hungry," I said, throwing the boy a sideways glance. "Yes we can take down these seven, _probably_. Assuming they're all untrained with the use of their Aura then we _might _even be able to take the rest of the White Fang presence here… but you said Neo was here as well and I couldn't take her down when I was fresh. It took both Blake and I to get her to _retreat_. We didn't even beat her."

The boy growled, his face contorted into a rictus of frustration and anger. "So what, then? We just _let _them-"

"No," I said, my voice firm. I brought my Scroll up in front of our faces. "We get help."

Sun glanced at the device – it was currently attempting to connect with Weiss – and immediately recoiled. "You're calling _her_?!"

Any reply was cut off when the girl in question appeared on the screen. "Enten," she said slowly, making eye contact with me. "What are- _you?! _I thought I told you to stay-"

Sun stuck his tongue out at the girl even as her eyes widened minutely.

"You woke up _Enten_," Weiss demanded of the boy. "He's injured! He needs rest! You're such an-"

"Weiss, Weiss," I called even as Sun resorted to laughing in the girl's face. I shoved him away and he squawked indignantly. "I need you to focus. We're at the docks-"

"You should be-"

"But I'm not. I'm at the docks and I'm not leaving the docks either."

I heard someone scoff out of frame on Weiss' side.

"Well, we're already here, looking for Ruby, Yang and Blake, so you can go back to Beacon. You shouldn't be out here, Enten," Weiss said, making eye contact with me. She continued, softer: "You'll get hurt… and this time it- no one is here to help."

I swallowed, honestly surprised that the girl would worry so much for my wellbeing. _I _didn't even worry that much… but then, I'd already lived one life. If I could use this one to make sure my team and my family _could _live theirs… I'd do it readily.

Maybe, just maybe, I overlooked something.

_She _cared about my life.

"I'll stay back," I assured her, a tranquil feeling overwhelming me.

It felt good to be cared for.

"I will," I said again when her lips tensed ever-so-slightly. Only four months of living with the girl allowed me to read that expression for what it was – doubt. "You know that application I've been making for the headmaster?"

She nodded.

"Well, it works now." Somewhat, but she didn't need to know about the list of minor details and bugs that needed fixing. Not now. "I know where every member of the White Fang is-"

"Wait, what?"

I stopped, having forgotten that she and the members of my hierarchy did not know who we were up against.

"Torchwick and his buddies have stepped up their game since we last saw them. They don't have those thugs Yang knew here; now, they have the White Fang and all the resources that come with it."

_Seven _airships. Just to rob some dust.

"The White Fang," Weiss repeated, a faraway look in her eyes. She swallowed and then the absentminded look faded, replaced by a furrowed brow and scowling lips. "The White Fang. Where are they?"

"North. Near… near warehouse seventy-eight. I think its district…uh." I glanced at Sun but he shook his head, just as clueless as I was.

"That's district six," Neilikka Kyyhky's voice said as the girl's face appeared next to Weiss'. Her bright purple hair – dyed, not natural or glowing like Suhoca's – fell freely around her face. "My dad works out here. He used to tell me stories about all the things Vale received."

"Six," I repeated, nodding. Hopefully Neil's father wasn't one of the bodies Sun and I found on the way to this warehouse. Two peacekeeper corpses and a handful of mechanical guards were hastily hidden behind a dumpster. Hopefully.

"We'll be there shortly," Weiss said, nodding, before her eyes widened minutely. She looked up, at something off screen. "Uhh, right?"

"Right," I heard Gamle laugh. "Let's get back to the car." Then, to me: "Enten, we'll be there in fifteen minutes. _Don't _do anything stupid."

The screen went dark.

I sighed. "Well, you heard the man, don't do- They're leaving!"

"What," Sun exclaimed, rushing back over to the door so that he could see as well.

"Yeah. Disappearing behind that warehouse… looks like they finally got their containers."

Sun nodded. "Right, so let's- hold up… one came back."

I tried but ultimately failed to see the person he was talking about. I could only assume that they were in the shadows of the warehouse across the clearing, hidden by the absence of moonlight.

"Okay," the blond said, seconds later, edging the door open. "We're clear, let's go."

So we did. The two of us hurriedly made our way over to the warehouse where my teammates were being held and I checked my map along the way. The three familiar dots were still there. Still in a line, still only moving minutely. Three of the other four unlabeled dots were still clustered together and the last one-

"_Shit_," I spat, shoving my Scroll in my pocket and grabbing Sun with my good arm. Hurriedly, I dragged him into an alley between the target warehouse and the next one down in the row.

"Hey man, what-"

A door slammed open and I snuck a glance around the corner just in time to see Roman Torchwick storm out of the sheet metal structure that held my teammates, his Scroll in hand.

"Yeah I- where did those buffoons go?! Did- oh."

He glanced down at his Scroll.

"No, no, they already got those. You know, as far as investments go, these guys are leagues better than those suit-and-tie chumps!"

Sun shifted next to me, leaning around the corner as well. Torchwick was facing away from us. It was a shame we couldn't hear what his contact was saying…

"Yeah," the man said. "Now we just have to keep them ha-" A pause. "Right, right. I'll just keep stealing dust," he sighed.

Suddenly, his shoulders grew rigid.

"No, no, no! I think you're doing a great-"

He laughed nervously.

"Of course not! I'll handle-"

Abruptly, he turned around and started pacing. Sun and I threw ourselves back behind the warehouse hastily.

"She's… difficult now. I think that last fight she got into, yanno, with that kid, really set her off. She does-" A pause. "No, I can control her."

Another laugh.

"She's tending to our guests right now. Great hostess, that one."

He grunted and stopped, facing away from us as he leaned on his cane.

"Yeah, why-"

A pause.

"Uhh… no?"

Another pause.

"Right, okay," he sighed. "No questions. Just rough them up. Alright."

Torchwick hummed.

"Maybe they're foreign? Part of General what's-his-name's fleet? Ironhead?"

He shrugged.

"You're the boss."

The called ended.

"Do this Roman," the man sighed, slowly trudging back to the warehouse. "Do that, and that, and make sure this works and this is all done. Man! I don't get paid enough for this."

"That bitch is hurting Blake and them," Sun hissed as soon as Torchwick shut the warehouse door. "We gotta go, _now_."

"Hold on."

"What do you mean hold on. These are your-"

"You don't think I don't know that," I spat, genuinely insulted. "You don't think I don't know that every single thrice-damned second we've spent out here increases the chances that my teammates, my _friends_, are hurt?!"

The boy swallowed and grimaced. "Sorry… just," he shook his head.

"We need to go in there with a plan," I said, pushing away my own worry over Torchwick's conversation. Their 'guests' were being tended to, likely by Neo, who was apparently a little unhinged after our fight.

But who were their guests?

"See," I muttered, tracking Torchwick's newly labeled dot on my Scroll. "Those three dots over there, the unlabeled ones? They're moving… that means that the Scrolls are moving which means those Scrolls are currently – likely – being held by people. These three dots over here represent Ruby, Yang and Blake, also moving, also meaning their Scrolls are likely still on their person."

"The unlabeled dots aren't anywhere near them," Sun observed.

"Right," I agreed. "And they haven't been. Not since you woke me up… I don't think those 'guests' are my team… I think they might be dock workers."

The boy grimaced. "You think they captured them instead of just offing them?"

I shrugged, watching as Roman's dot left the warehouse through the other door, the one closer to the bulk of activity. There were only eighteen dots left now.

Time was short.

And then, an explosion cut through the relatively peaceful night with a sudden ferocity that left me stunned. Shouting immediately erupted from the other side of the warehouse and I looked back down at my Scroll to find that Weiss, Coco, Fox, Neil and Hvid were here now.

A grin pulled at my lips.

"The cavalry has arrived. Come on," I muttered, darting over to the warehouse door Torchwick used only minutes earlier. The three unlabeled dots had split up. Two remained where they were – the guests, most likely – while one was heading over to the far door.

Now or never.

Light spilled through the door's window from within the warehouse as I reached it. Without hesitation, I shouldered it open and charged into the building. Immediately, I was met with metal scaffolding that held an assortment of metal pipes and wires. My good hand grasped one of the pipes even as I darted around the shelving and into the warehouse proper.

The girls were fine. All three sat in chairs, their arms bound. Two bodies, one vaguely familiar to me, lay across from them. Neo was on the far side of the warehouse.

Neo.

'_Bitch.'_

"Enten," Blake shouted, alarmed as I darted by her, throwing myself at Neo.

I landed on top of the shorter woman just as she turned around and threw my good shoulder into her torso. She shattered into thousands of glass pieces and _– I struggled against her weight and her strength_.

A growl escaped me even as I shook the thoughts from-

My left shoulder _exploded _into a furious mixture of pain, agony and mind-breaking anguish and I was sent sprawling to the ground. It accepted me into its unforgiving embrace harshly. My pipe clattered to the ground next to me.

I lay there for several moments, gasping for breath, shocked and numb. I could hear the girls yelling. I could hear gun shots. I heard Sun grunting and weapons flying and I-

Get up. Get up you fool. Up!

Slowly, I leveraged myself up to a knee with my good arm. Sun was fighting Neo now, wielding a bow-staff almost faster than I could track. The girls were all looking in my direction and, now that I stopped to look, I could see tear tracks running down Ruby's face.

Rage flooded my veins with a ferocity, with a swiftness the likes of which I'd never felt before. I saw my leader's eyes widened even as a scowl harshly pulled at my lips.

I turned back to Sun and Neo, feeling at my injured shoulder as I did. It protested my inspection with pain and when I drew my fingers away, they were bloodied. Red.

'_Unhinged after the last fight. I'll put her down in this one.'_

The pipe, about two feet in length, was grasped again and I threw myself into a charge.

Neo's leg had just extended, catching Sun in the gut, when I reached her and lashed out with my right arm. She avoided the blow, a smirk on her face, and spun into kick aimed at my bad shoulder-

I ducked, allowing the blow to pass harmlessly over my head even as Sun rejoined the fight with a flurry of gunshots. Neo retreated and I pursued her, channeling as much Aura through the pipe as I could in a desperate imitation of my Aura Bullet.

The force gathered in a split second, hummed metallically inside of its prison and unleashed itself in a visible display of power.

The Aura was purple.

It quickly closed in on Neo and the woman extended her umbrella out in front of her, expanding the device just as my attack-

The umbrella shattered and revealed the woman's shocked expression even as she was taken off her feet by the power behind my attack. My _purple _attack.

It was with a grin that I pursued her, heedless of my weak shoulder protesting every moment.

Rage was one hell of an anesthetic.

I reached her and sent my pipe forward in a jab. It missed, though, when the woman side-stepped the attack and lashed out with her leg, catching me in the thigh. I stumbled but Sun covered by shouldering me out of the way and engaging the woman with his staff. Without her umbrella, the boy looked to be on even footing with her.

On the ground now, I immediately made to get up. My leg faltered, though. It was not broken but it was delicate. I'd need to watch how much weight I-

"Enten, get your _fucking ass _over here!"

The shrill, high pitched scream startled me enough that I looked over at the girls. They'd been yelling at me since I engaged Neo but I'd been filtering it out as background noise. _That _scream though… that expletive-laden scream from _Ruby _of all people, was enough to get my attention.

"Get over here," the girl hissed, tears running down her face again. "Now!"

I looked back at Neo and Sun-

"Enten," Ruby yelled. "Now!"

So I did.

"I've never seen you do something so _dumb_," my leader railed when I drew near. "You're injured and she could've _killed _you and if Sun weren't here then…" She shook her head. "Did you see what she did to Emerald? To Mercury?"

_What?_

My head snapped over to the two bodies on the ground-

Mercury Black.

_What?_

"Enten," Ruby snapped, absolutely livid. "Untie us so we can help. We _need _to help. We _need _to stop her."

Silently, I went about doing just that.

"Four hours," Ruby muttered as I started on the rope tying her limbs together. "Four hours… and she wouldn't stop. No matter how much I yelled. She wouldn't stop. She… We need to capture her so she can't do this again."

"Best to kill her," I muttered, loosening the bonds enough that Ruby could escape.

"You stop talking," Ruby demanded. "I'm probably going to be sorry for this later but right now I've been watching a _friend _get hurt for four hours and I couldn't do _anything _about it and then _you! You idiot! You_ decide charging in here with an injured shoulder is a good idea and now you're going to untie Blake and Yang and then you're going to _stay out of the way!_ Do you understand?"

First Weiss' concern, now Ruby's.

"Yes," I muttered, my rage all but evaporated. I offered the girl my pipe, as a gesture of good will, and went about untying Blake.

"Good," Ruby nodded, accepting the pipe. "Now, I'm going to help Sun."

With that, she left. Immediately, I breathed a sigh of relief that I didn't know I'd been holding.

"You are _soooo _gonna get a talking to, later," Yang taunted.

"Think I just did," I responded, freeing Blake. She rubbed her wrists and turned to me. Silently, she glanced at my shoulder and, faster than I could react, reached up and grabbed my ear, twisting it harshly.

"Ow. _Ow!_ Blake!"

She huffed, let go and then stepped forward to give me a brief hug. Before I could return the gesture, she was gone too.

Silent, I watched her go.

"It wasn't easy," Yang muttered, a sad smile on her face as I started over toward her. "Ruby wasn't lying when she said we were here for four hours… never touched a hair on our heads once we were in these chairs… but Emerald and her buddy weren't so lucky."

"Mercury," I said quietly.

"Mercury," the blonde agreed. "It wasn't easy just… watching. Not when we've been training to do exactly the opposite of that. Ruby took it hardest, I think. She has it in her head that huntresses can do anything. I think this was a nasty wake-up call for her."

"She's got a big heart. Probably hurt her direly to watch it," I guessed. Given my leader's penchant for caring too much about everything and anything, I could easily see how watching a friend get beaten for four hours would harm her.

Yang grunted, standing up and flexing her wrists. "Good to be back," she said, punching me on my good shoulder. "Thanks big guy."

I nodded to her, relieved that _she _wasn't mad, as something in my peripheral caught my eye.

Neo, bolting through the southern door of the warehouse.

"She's getting away," I said, nodding toward the door.

"Right," Yang grunted again, running over to where Blake and Ruby retrieved Gambol Shroud and Crescent Rose, respectively. "Stay out of trouble," she called as she followed Sun, her sister and RWEBY's resident faunus through the door.

And just like that, I was alone with Mercury and 'Emerald'. A sigh escaped me. At the very least, I could try and see if they were alive.

"Are you two alright," I called out as I started their way.

Mercury remained unmoving but the green haired girl laughed weakly. "Do we look alright?"

"No," I admitted, leaning over the boy and searching for a pulse. I found one but his body was covered in bruises. I thought I spotted a broken under his bloodied uniform too. "His breathing is even, at least."

"Get away from me," Emerald muttered lowly when I leaned over her. She was too weakened to put up much of a fight, though, so I rolled her onto her back anyway. "I said get away from me!"

"I'm trying to help."

"We don't need your help," she returned. "We don't need _anyone's _help."

"I beg to differ," I countered, feeling along her ribs for any broken bones. None, at least as far as I could tell… which probably wasn't the greatest guarantee but it was all I could do.

"Get off me! Off!"

"Fine," I grunted, shrugging. "You two stay here and act like corpses, I'll be doing something useful."

She laughed when I turned to go. "Big talk from a-" She coughed. "From a trainee."

I continued toward the door, heedless of her taunts.

"I guess you did beat Pyrrha Nikos," Emerald called as loudly as she could. I had to strain to hear her. "Doesn't mean _shit _out here. That bitch would've taken Nikos apart. Easily."

My hand grasped the doorknob.

"It took three of your friends to drive her off, idiot. _Without _her umbrella. And monkey-boy wasn't looking so great toward the end of it. What do you think you can do?"

"I can observe," I said, pausing look enough to throw her a glance over my shoulder. "The power of the mind isn't to be underestimated."

She laughed again but I left her there, done with her defeatist attitude. I had work to do.

My Scroll was quickly brought to bear.

There were eleven unlabeled dots now, not counting Emerald and Mercury. Five we clustered together in a clearing and another five were clustered together, a little farther away. Neo's – still unlabeled – dot was being pursured by Yang's, Ruby's and Blake's. Sun's was unmoving some distance behind them.

Weiss, along with our hierarchy members, were several hundred feet to the south, near where another cluster of unlabeled dots just made their escape via airship.

They were running away. Torchwick, Neo and the White Fang were trying to leave.

I hopped up on a discarded shipping container and tried to line up what I was seeing on my Scroll with what was happening in front of me. Two airships remained, both were filled with unlabeled dots which meant Torchwick was already gone. Neo was still here, presumably keeping the last airships grounded until she could-

A storm of gunfire erupted in front of me and I darted toward the sound of battle. My Scroll indicated that another airship just left – indeed, I heard its engines over the firefight – and the other was still waiting for Neo. Yang, Ruby and Blake were pinned down now, near that last airship, as White Fang members fired upon their position.

Damnit all. Guns could only even the playing field so much against hunters and huntresses – our Aura training involved the use of it to almost instinctively block bullets. They traveled faster than we could see but our Auras were mysterious forces that almost had a mind of their own.

Still, against a well-trained group of riflemen, hunters would be reduced to their ranged weapons all the same.

I reached a shipping container a short distance away from the air ship, off to the side of where the White Fang were concentrating their fire. There were four of them and it looked like the pilot had joined in on the defense…

But there were five dots on my Scroll. What…

Quickly, or as quickly as I could with one hand, I went about investigating the signals I was receiving. Four were from Scrolls but the other one… was that the airship? Was the airship connected to Vale's network as well?

I could use this.

Neo boarded the ship and forcefully took the gun away from one White Fang member. The unarmed woman disappeared into the ships cockpit.

"Yang," I yelled over the gunfire. "_Yang!"_

The blonde paused in the middle of reloading Celica and glanced up at me, her eyes widening in surprise.

Hurriedly, I beckoned her over.

"I can't type with one arm," I said after she conferred with Ruby and Blake and finally, _finally_ made her way over. "Type what I say, _exactly _as I say it."

"Okay…"

"Initiate –f air2090_2"

"It wants a password."

"Hit enter."

"Incorrect…what are we doing?"

"Lookup air2090_2 vale_whub2 –u BranwenR"

"It wants another-"

"#EDC4rfv"

"It worked."

"What's it saying," I asked hurriedly. The airship was starting to rise off the ground now. We didn't have much time.

"Uhh. Search returned-"

"The results, Yang. The results!"

"Fine! It says the 'ID' is atlasairship00024- Hey! Are you hacking?!" Her eyes widened. "Am _I _hacking?!"

"The ID, Yang."

"atlasairship0002493. Oh just _wait _until I tell dad about this."

"set id = 'atlasairship0002493'."

"Okay."

"shutdown –f –u BranwenR id."

"Access denied."

"Damnit. Okay… if brute force won't work, then maybe circumvent it somehow… Type 'rat start'."

"It says 'Remote Administration Tools-'."

"Good, type 'find id'."

"Found it."

"use id."

"Okay."

"service –status-all."

"Oka- Wow. That's a lot. What do they all m-"

"service gyro_nav stop," I said quickly. The airship was now about one hundred feet out. Ruby and Blake were running over and I thought I heard Weiss and co. approaching from the other direction.

"Okay. It says it was stopped."

"See how the airship just tilted? They don't have any automatic compensation for things like wind now." I didn't necessarily _know _that but I figured gyro_nav had something to do with the air ships balancing functions… shutting it down was sure to hurt it. "Next… shut down that one: service thruster_cal stop."

"This is so awesome," Yang muttered after she typed in the command. The airship lurched forward and stopped moving abruptly, instead it started hovering in place.

"They know something is up," I muttered. "Desperate times… try killall –u BranwenR –f"

"Pass-"

"Same one."

"It accepted it!" The blonde jerked her head up just in time to see the airship carrying Neo shudder and die. It immediately went into an uncontrolled spiral toward the ground, near Vale's shoreline. "I just hacked an airship!"

"Clean up time," Hivd Gamle said as he passed me, clapping me on the shoulder as he did so. "Good job Enten, Yang."

"Yeah, way to go champ," Coco inserted as she followed the fourth year. "First the mention in your interview, now you shut down an airship carrying away criminals… I'll have to come up with something better than a mission to reward you with."

"Same old Adel," I muttered, a grin on my face. Success was a drug that I would freely enjoy. "You can thank me by stopping Weiss next time she tries to buy me a skirt."

The second year laughed and turned to run off in the same direction as HRCN's H and HRCN's N. Fox Alistair trailed after her.

Suddenly, a hand grasped my shoulder and I was spun about to face one Weiss Schnee.

"Well," she said expectantly.

"Uhh…"

"Ugh, _boys_. Apologize to us! You were _superbly _moronic tonight and don't think taking down one measly air ship is going to change that!"

"But it had Neo-"

"I don't care if it had every White Fang member on it! _You _are more important, you dolt!"

"I hardly think I'm more important than every member of White Fang," I muttered, a frown on my face. "Seems like a good exch-"

Fast as a whip, Weiss slapped me.

"Shut up," she lowly. "I know _you _don't think much of your life, but _we _do." She gestured to the rest of team RWEBY behind her and nods accompanied her statement. Except Yang, the blonde only shrugged.

"We do," Weiss reiterated, elbowing Yang in the side. "We're a team, Enten. We care about each other. We let you care about us, let _us _care about _you_."

"I do. I was sitting in the medical room, healing, until I heard about you three getting captured," I said, indicating Ruby, Blake and Yang. "I was going to stay there too, had all of this not happened."

"We would have been able to handle it without you," Weiss said, her voice soft as she reached out and grasped my forearm. "Let us fight some of your battles."

"You never would have found them without me, Weiss. I knew where the warehouse was because of my map."

"And you couldn't have just called me from the medical room?"

That brought me up short. I never even considered staying behind when I had the power to make a difference.

"But… the airship. They would have gotten away!"

Weiss shook her head. "I don't care. I meant it when I said you were worth more than the entire White Fang organization to me. To _me_. You _know _what that means."

"I'm worth more to you than ending the White Fang," I said, slowly. "…Why? They're your monster under the bed. Your biggest fear! Your-"

"And you've taken it upon yourself to be my shield _against _that fear. You… you got me to talk. I've never told anyone about that, about what I went through as a child, I… I don't want to lose that. I don't want to lose _you_."

"Being a faunus," Blake said quietly. "It's not so bad now. Not as afraid to speak. Don't need to keep quiet. I feel safer."

A stunned silence fell over me and I felt like I should say something, _anything, _in the face of their admissions but…

My mouth moved but no words came out. I was speechless. Humbled. I was as important to them as they were to me. That… that was comforting. I'd always thought that _I _cared more because I was willing to go farther for them, to keep them safe. But all along, they'd been returning my affection and I'd only been too blind to see it.

Weiss sharing her fears and her doubts with me. Blake's faunus nature, the girl's walls slowly being broken down with each and every secret she shared with me. Yang… she kept me sane, I realized. She would find me in the library, working on one of the countless projects I piled upon my own shoulders, and always, _always _dragged me away from them. I'd thought of her as a distraction, when she did that, but now…

A smile slowly started developed on my face.

"I'd say group hug but…"

Ruby scoffed and threw herself at my right side. Yang quickly followed, then Weiss and finally, Blake.

"You're such an older brother," Ruby said, laughing softly. "You think you have to do _everything_. Like we're only here to be protected by you or something."

"I know you can all fight, you're all strong in your own right, stronger and smarter than me in-"

"None of that," Weiss snapped. "I can observe people too, Enten Melkweg, and I don't think you value yourself enough. I think you _still _blame yourself for your father's death and I think you're _still _trying to make that up to yourself. I don't think you'll be satisfied until you're _dead._"

I opened my mouth to refute that, I'd accepted dad's death, but the white haired girl continued before I could so much as get a word out of my mouth.

"You didn't even think about forfeiting that duel with Pyrrha when she tried to _kill _you the first two times because you wanted to prove to us that she wasn't invincible. Well, you did that when you _punched her across the stage_! You didn't need to go any further, but you did!"

"It was a _really _nice punch, though," Yang muttered. "Glorious."

"You didn't _need _to come here tonight, but you did. You didn't _need _to throw yourself at Neo, but you did. What you _need _to do, Enten Melkweg, is learn to rely on other people! Ruby doesn't have to be around to tell you to do that, you can trust us on your own! Just…"

She swallowed. "Just, let us in."

"Trust," I muttered. "I do trust you."

"Then prove it! Instead of trying to do everything by yourself, let us _help_."

"You didn't, though. I tried," I said, my mind spinning. I did try. I did trust them. "Back when I was using Cardin. I told you, all of you about that. I did that for you. For us. I did that for RWEBY. And…"

My breathing was growing uneven. I didn't feel like crying right now. I'd done enough of that for this lifetime.

"That doesn't mean you shouldn't trust us," Ruby said. "That just means we didn't think what you were doing was right. We're a team, Enten, we help each other… sometimes that means we disagree. Just… from now on, let us know what you're thinking? Please?"

"Please," Blake grunted in agreement. "Like talking to a wall, sometimes. Even if this wall talks back," she finished with a wry smile.

Open up to them. About everything?

"All my fears, all my doubts, all the concerns I have, the plans I've made, my thoughts on the map, on school, on our classmates, on the tournament… on all of _this_," I said, gesturing to the docks with a sweeping gesture of my arms. "You want _all _of that?"

Weiss nodded silently even as Yang said: "Well, we don't wanna read your diary or anything, but-"

"What my older sister _means _to say," Ruby cut in, "is: yes. We do."

I laughed softly. I never really considered sharing _everything _with them before. The things that would affect team RWEBY? Certainly. But all of the things I could do myself, the things that might not even concern them? I always kept those to myself.

A prime example, I'd been considering going to see Weiss' father myself. After tonight, especially, I knew we would probably need help. Team RWEBY was not ready to face down the White Fang. Letting the girls in on that never even crossed my mind.

I told Sun that I wanted to make the hard choices so that the rest of RWEBY didn't have to… maybe I was wrong? Maybe it was time I start including them in _everything_.

"Alright," I said. "First order of business, then: we need to go see the headmaster about Emerald and Mercury. He gave me some interesting information when I was in the medical room, namely that he's not here for the tournament and he's not _really _from Haven."

"Wow," Ruby muttered, her eyebrows arched. "Emerald too, then!"

"How 'bout sleep first," Yang interjected. "Beauty rest? Enten needs it _bad_."

"Nice shiner," I shot back.

"The purple matches my eyes."

A laugh escaped me even as Yang started off in the direction of the air ship.

"Stay here," Ruby said. "Let us deal with Neo. In the meantime, can you get Sun up and going again? He took a nasty hit from Neo while we were chasing her."

I nodded and turned to leave but stopped abruptly once a stray memory crossed my mind.

"Yang," I called. "Wait!"

The blonde turned, confused, but after a second or two, her eyes widened in recognition. "I forgot. I still have your Scroll."

"Not that," I said, accepting the proffered device anyway. "I need to speak with you about something."

"Can it wait?"

"You couldn't."

"What," the girl asked, her brow furrowed.

"Three hours," I said, watching her lips curl into a frown. I allowed the silence to stretch on for another few seconds and then: "For three hours I sat in the medical room, being lectured by my mother."

The blonde's eyes widened and a large grin slowly started developing on her face.

"I don't know if you've ever been lectured in public, around classmates and the good doctor too, but it _sucks_. And it was even worse because it _wasn't _my fault."

"So you liked my pictures," Yang said, glee written into every inch of her face. Behind her, Blake shifted and frowned.

"Well, I'm glad you took them _clothed_," I snarked. "Because now my sister only thinks you're horrible at taking pictures because _she was using my Scroll and you __**knew that!**_"

"It may have come up in one of our previous conv-"

I took a strand of her hair between my fingertips and _pulled._

She swallowed, her eyes locked onto the strand. "Oh, you did _not_…"

"Three hours, Yang. I got _another _talk!"

The girl snorted and the dangerous look fled her face immediately. Behind her, Ruby relaxed.

"Really?!"

I stole another strand of her hair.

"Hey! We're even now! One more strand, _one more _and-"

And another.

"Three hours! Three!"

She grit her teeth and clenched her fists, stomping up to me until she was inches from my face. "You take one more piece of my hair, Melkweg, and I'll break your other shoulder!"

But she didn't punch me. Three strands of hair and no physical reaction at all… this must be what women felt like back on Earth. This was a _wonderful _feeling – never before had it been socially unacceptable to beat the ever living shit out of me.

There was only one thing I could do in this situation: abuse it until Yang snapped.

It ended up taking four more strands of hair.

"Yang," Ruby snapped when the blonde socked me in the stomach. Given how angry she was, I went down wheezing.

"He's already injured and you _know _he was just trying to rile you up! You could've just walked away and ignored him but you _stayed _and then hit him! What if he gets more hurt? What are you gonna do then? Don't look away from me! You need to apologize!"

From the ground, curled up as I was, I managed to make eye contact with Yang only for a brief moment.

But that moment was enough.

"We're even," I mouthed.

Behind the blonde, Blake and Weiss rolled their eyes.

* * *

**AN: **That's a wrap people! Season one content: done! Mercury and Emerald got their butts whooped and Neo got captured – how's that for a plot twist?

And, as a reminder from your friendly neighborhood author:

RWEBY's hierarchy

RWEBY

CFVY

UHNS (Uhrglas Kristall, Hehku Tukko, Neste Tukko, Sjeverni Suhoca) They're the lazy team

HRCN (Hvid Gamle, Rod Seglare, Citrin Har, Neilikka Kyyhky) They're the divided-over-faunus-team.

Just a note for the future: I'll be on vacation when the chapter after the next one hits. That'll probably be delayed until Thanksgiving weekend.

And while I have your attention: this chapter felt like it was paced a little faster to me. Do you agree? If you do - did you like the pace? Too fast, too slow? Lemme know!

**MrtheratedG: **Right now we are at the end of season one in the canon storyline. Thanks for the kind words!

**98Kazer: **Realism and character detail is what I try to include the most of in my stories. I'm glad you like it! Thanks!

**BionicKid: **I admit, the correlation between his intelligence and his shield was one I missed. I had in mind another, more obvious, symbolic notion of choosing a shield for his weapon: his role as a protector. I do like the comparison though, it's flattering you put as much as thought as you did into it. Thanks for your review!

**Guest: **I like to think douche-dom is sort of like beauty: held in the eye of the beholder! Thanks for your review!

**Guest-numero dos: **Yang don't give no damns about what six year olds should/should not see.

**Name-change guest: **Neo rematch: yay. And again in the future: yay. Don't worry, you'll see more of this matchup. And yes, 'Cinder' wants to recruit them… Thanks for your review!

**Jack Hunter: **I think she just likes his legs. Or she just wants to embarrass him. Never know with women.

**Dark habit: **You can be certain that Blake did not agree to Yang's… efforts to embarrass Enten.

**Eclipse-Sol: **Let me reiterate how this iteration of Reiteration is the last iteration of season one content from canon. Iterate.

Till next time! I'm off to deal with DMV funsies (please apply the sarcasm now).

-Phailen


	26. Chapter 26

_Week 15, Sunday – medical room_

"What's that do," Ruby asked, extending a finger toward her Scroll.

"That's the local group I created within Vale's network," I said absentmindedly, double-checking that her Scroll was, in fact, in the group. "With our teams' Scrolls in it, we'll have a little more freedom to speak and more security to pass around information. More protection against attacks that affect the network as a whole too."

"Oh."

Sure enough, my Scroll – where I was signed in as the administrator for 'thefightclub' – showed Ruby's within the group. It was troubling to me that I was using this 'BranwenR' account for so much when I didn't even know the owner – or have permission to change the password – but I couldn't exactly distrust the headmaster. That man was the entire reason I was here at Beacon while my family was still in their home.

No, the headmaster deserved my trust. If he gave me an account that had access to Vale's network infrastructure, then I would use it as if it were my own.

Didn't mean I would give it access to my old world files, though. Those stayed encrypted and under my control and my control only.

Completely off the network. The knowledge I brought over from Earth was mine. It was almost my secret weapon.

"What's that," Ruby asked, leaning over me so much that she was nearly half way onto my thin cot in Beacon's medical room.

"The application I used to find you, Yang and Blake last night. It's not complete, but I want you guys to have it just in case we need to locate each other. In short, it's a map."

"Oh."

"It needs to sync up to radio towers when it goes out of range of one and into the range of another," I continued, modifying the permissions on some files so that the Scroll could use it. I'd need to make this automated in the future – doing this manually was incredibly tedious. "That takes a few minutes and it's something I'm working on. It also doesn't handle large populations of people well – our Scrolls can only process so much data at a time and the network can only provide as much as it can handle too. There are plenty of potential throttles on the throughput that I need to work on still but-"

"Enten," Ruby said abruptly. "So it needs to reload and it's slow?"

"I… yes, to put it simply…"

"Oh."

"But there's a lot more to it than that. Saying it's slow suggests that _my code _is the culprit when in actuality it's the network's load-bearing capabilities and the Scroll's lack of processing power. My code is fine… I just need to look into-"

"Enten," Ruby said again. "So you're awesome?"

"Yeah. Pretty much."

"Oh."

She fell silent then and I focused entirely on getting her Scroll up-to-date and as secure as I could make it. By no means was I an expert on locking down devices but I knew just enough to be dangerous. A local group within Vale's over-arching domain was the best I could do barring another domain entirely, but that would require me to setup a trust relationship and I had neither the know-how nor the time to learn. So, instead, I created something that was roughly equivalent to Beacon's wireless network: an entity all its own but still part of the overarching Vale infrastructure.

It was similar in nature to how the White Fang configured their airships. Later, after the battle was over and Neo was taken into custody, I realized that her airship was the only one Vale's network could see. The other six had no presence in it, effectively 'flying silent'. They sacrificed communication for security. The one airship _on _the network must have been something of a contact point for them; maybe White Fang's leadership used it to communicate with their members out in the field?

I didn't know and, in the end, it was not up to me to determine the nature of the unique air ship and any information contained therein.

Movement from my side distracted me as I modified the map's connection settings: Ruby. The girl, silent as the night, shuffled up onto my bed and lay her head down on my shoulder, staring off into the distance.

I reclined slightly to accommodate her weight and keep her from getting a stiff neck, but ultimately left the girl to her devices. She'd gotten touchier as of late – sometimes it was annoying, other times it was endearing.

"You're gonna have to get closer if you want to stay up here," I muttered, pulling her closer with my good arm. I couldn't see her Scroll well otherwise.

She obliged me and shuffled closer, still silent. It was almost discerning, now. The girl never went long without speaking her mind or trying to make small talk. It was a side-effect of her social insecurities – she couldn't tell what people were thinking about her and she knew that bluntly asking was a faux pas; thus, she judged opinions by making conversation. By reading her partner's mood and tone of voice, something that she – even in her moments of obliviousness – could understand.

It was a double edged sword, especially for people like myself or Blake – sometimes we just didn't feel up to talking. Ruby, of course, would interpret that as us being mad at her. It took me some time to adjust to that, when I met her at Beacon. Blake learned quickly enough too.

"Enten," Ruby said suddenly, quietly.

"Hmm?"

"Sorry about yelling at you last night. I didn't mean what I said."

It couldn't be that simple. There was more than just an apology on her mind – the girl had absolutely no problem admitting she was wrong, that was one of the things that made her such a good leader.

"It's alright. I needed some sense knocked into me. I was too angry, wasn't thinking straight."

She shifted, quiet, then: "You don't like Neo, do you?"

The solemn tone in her voice told me that we were approaching the source of her unease. I took my fingers away from her Scroll and glanced down at her. She was looking at me. Grey eyes. So wide. So earnest.

"…No. No, I don't."

"Would you…" She broke eye contact, laying her head back down on my shoulder. "Would you have killed her, if you had the chance?"

_It's easy, Pyrrha, for people like us to say we'd die for our friends. But it's hard… oh so hard to admit that we'd kill for them._

"Yes," I said quietly, placing the girl's Scroll on my lap when she shifted. "Yes, I would have."

I was afraid of what Neo could do and just selfish enough to be rid of her without thinking of Vale as a whole. It might help the city, to keep her alive and see what she knew, but I wasn't in this for Vale. I told myself I was, back when I started at Beacon, but I was coming to realize that I was lying to myself when I decided that.

It had never been for Vale. It had always been for my family and, later, my team. Perhaps even Sun, in the future – who knew? The boy had impressed me in his determination to see the rest of my team safe, even if he _was _motivated by Blake in particular.

"Is that what's bothering you," I ventured further when the girl kept her silence. Never did I think that hearing Ruby hold her tongue would bother me so much.

She shook her head. "I…" She sighed. "You were right. The Grimm aren't our only enemies. Those guys, with Torchwick and them… they wanted us dead. They were talking about getting rid of me, Blake and Yang – right in front us!"

She sniffed. "We're just students- I…"

"You were a threat," I said slowly. "They saw you as a threat and the fact that they were considering… _disposing _of you means they have something to hide. Likely the fact that they're stealing all this dust – I don't think they want to be found out yet and that, frankly, is the most concerning part of this entire situation… They have the backing of the White Fang and they _still _don't want to move?"

I shook my head. "This is something _big._ Too big for us. Beyond our capabilities." I squeezed her shoulders. "I'm only happy that the three of you are safe, now. With any luck, we won't ever see Roman Torchwick again and Neo will… We won't have to deal with Neo anymore, either."

"That's not what Blake and Weiss think," Ruby muttered. "They're in the library right now and I've never seen either of them so angry before- I mean, except that one time I accidentally blew up Weiss… she was pretty mad then but this time was different because… Sorry, I'm rambling."

I laughed. "Admission is the first step to recovery."

"Jerk," she scoffed, a smile on her face that quickly faded when Yang turned over in her bed. A solemn look appeared on her face; rounded eyes, slack mouth, it all spoke of introspection.

"They want to keep hunting them down," she said quietly, her eyes locked on her elder sister. "Blake and Weiss. I'm worried about them. About us."

"An unprecedented amount of dust was just stolen from SDC," I said absentmindedly. "It makes sense that Weiss is on a warpath right now. Blake…"

"She hates that the White Fang is hurting innocents," Ruby inserted. "She used to be-"

"Might want to keep that quiet," I said, covering the girl's mouth. "Some of the hierarchies are up-in-arms over the robbery; I've seen two students drop by today already and they both let slip that arguments revolving around the White Fang were the root cause when the doctor pushed them for details. It's dangerous to be associated with them right now. More dangerous than it normally is."

"You mean because of the anti-faunus faction," the girl said. "No wonder Coco and her team were sticking so close together today. It's a good thing Blake keeps-"

"Her books so organized, yeah," I continued as seamlessly as I could. "Last time Coco and her team stuck together, they knocked over an entire bookcase."

The girl's eyes widened. "What?! When?!"

"Right around the time we had that talk, before the _boat mission_, remember?"

"About Ultimatum? Back when it didn't have a name? Or do you- Oh. _Oh!_"

"Oh."

She grinned, sheepish. "Sorry. I'm just worried about stuff. It seems like rankings and grades and homework are all so petty compared to… _this_."

"Don't. We won't be worrying about Torchwick and his goons anymore. Let the authorities handle it."

She grunted, uncertain. "Tell that to Blake and Weiss…"

"I plan on it, as soon as I'm done spending an extra week in this damnable room."

"That's so long! You're gonna miss two dueling classes at that rate!"

"Well, it's about time I lost a duel… I think I'm on a seven-win run right now."

"Truly? You know, if you won _ten _in a row people might start calling you… _Win-_ten," a boisterous voice from the door laughed.

A scoff escaped me at the awfulness of the pun by reflex alone – that was above and beyond what Yang was capable of, easily – and I turned toward the door to find a lean man watching Ruby and I. He was blond and his hair was just long enough that it covered his ears, his clothing consisted of many different shades of tan and brown, much like Yang, minus the orange.

"Daddy," Ruby squealed directly into my ear as she threw herself off of my bed – almost depositing me on the ground – and sprinted toward the man that I now knew to be Taiyang Xiao Long. Yang and Ruby's father.

I never saw him at Signal. When I went there to build my weapon with Ruby, I could only ever make it to the school well after its students – and most of its professors – went home for the day. I saw "Uncle Qrow" in passing once, but never Taiyang.

I waited, silent, while they hugged and said their greetings. It was clear they were close and I knew that this was the first time Ruby saw her father since the year began – Yang would likely be just as excited to see him.

Speaking of my blonde teammate…

"Now I see where Yang gets it from," I said when the pair started to approach my bed. "If she were up right now I'd probably hear about that pun for a month at least. _Especially _when I miss this next dueling class."

"She already calls you Renten when you get out of hand," Ruby reminded me.

As if I needed to be reminded.

"Just something she does to… let me know when she thinks I'm a little too focused," I explained.

"Hmm," Taiyang hummed, a small smile on his face as he cast a glance over at his elder daughter. "She's always had a stellar sense of humor, that one. Her first pun – I'll never forget it – was: 'Hey Ruby, if a dog gives birth near a road, is it littering?'. Genius. Pure genius! And at six years old! I called all my friends to tell them about it!"

"I don't remember that," Ruby said slowly while I laughed.

"You wouldn't," the man said. "That was the day you became convinced you could fly and jumped off a swing set when I wasn't looking. Yang made that joke to make you feel better."

"Oh," my leader said, a bright blush on her cheeks. "Uh, that's- I don't remember that either."

"Probably because you nearly cracked your head open. _That _was a good mugshot."

Ruby groaned.

"Mugshot," I asked, intrigued.

"I take their mugshots once a year and place them upon their room-portals so that they never mistake their rooms," Taiyang elaborated, smiling fondly. "Otherwise Ruby might accidentally take underwear from-"

"Dad!"

"What? It only happened once and Yang was-"

"Dad! _Please!_ Not in front of my friends!"

"Oh, alright," the man said, his shoulders slumping. "You never let me have any fun. It's always 'Dad this!' and 'Dad that!' when I see you."

Ruby slapped a hand over her face but it did nothing to cover her blush. She shot me a smoldering look from behind her palm when she realized I was staring, as if daring me to make a comment.

I opened my mouth-

"Speaking of friends," Taiyang continued, glancing about the medical room. "I don't see them."

"Ugh, why do you care?"

"I want to meet them, silly!"

"So you can tell _them_ stories too?"

"She's so mean to me," the man lamented, glancing in my direction.

"Just find a spider-"

"Okay," Ruby declared, her face beet red. She still hadn't lived down the spider snafu with my mother and my sister. "I'm going to get Blake and Weiss because you two are butt-faces!"

With that she turned and marched toward the door.

Taiyang waved at her retreating back then looked to me. His eyes widened, though, when he spotted Ruby's Scroll on my bed.

"Wait, Rosebud!"

She groaned dramatically. "Will you stop calling me that?"

"No, Ruby," I said slowly. "I think he means your Scroll."

"Rosebud," the girl gasped and she whirled around, crossing the distance between my bed and the door in a split second and seizing the object from my outstretched hand. Immediately, she started checking every inch of the device's surface, as though it might have suffered untold trauma at my hands in the few seconds she wasn't near it.

She nodded, satisfied, several seconds later and shot a glance first at her father and then at me.

"Bye," she grunted, backing away towards the door. "You're both still butt-faces. But thank you."

"Bye sweetie," Taiyang called as Ruby reached the door. "Hurry back!"

Once she was gone, the man turned to me with a more serious look on his face. He was no longer smiling and his eyes were open wide, now - Yang's were the same color as his. He placed his hands behind his back.

"Enten Melkweg," he said, exhaling slowly. "I understand I have you to thank for returning my daughters safely to this school?"

I swallowed, wary given the sudden change in direction and tone of the conversation. I realized quickly that he did not want to speak of this while Ruby was around – insightful of him, my leader was still very much affected by her captivity and the brutality she was forced to witness for its duration.

"Yes. Sun Wukong and I freed the girls. Weiss and members of my hierarchy arrived in time to help us fight off Torchwick's cronies and subdue Neo."

"Thank you," he said quietly, nodding even as he extending his hand. "Thank you."

I accepted the gesture mutely, still not sure what to make of this man. The fact that he asked Ruby to get Weiss and Blake, thereby removing her from the room before speaking of this, suggested that he was for more aware than his demeanor had revealed thus far.

"Ruby has spoken much about you; Yang has too, for that matter," the man continued. "It is clear to me that you don't always agree, but then, no team _always _agrees. There will be fights. Ups and downs. Words will be thrown and disagreements will be had. I experienced this with my team. I _still _experience it with my team. Thus, I read around their bias."

He turned to the window next to my bed, hands still behind his back, to observe Remnant's rising sun.

"They both think you are, by far, the most intelligent person on their team. The most cunning person on their team. The most deceitful and brutal person on their team. They think you are willing to do anything to get what you want, regardless of who you will sacrifice. What I found curious, though, was that not once did they question whether or not it might be _themselves _who get sacrificed. It was always others. My daughters didn't even consider the possibility of you sacrificing _them _for your goals."

The man paused and I remained silent, wary. There was a point to his speech, one that I wasn't aware of just yet.

"I am not so naïve," he continued. "I've known people like you before, Enten – may I call you Enten? Yes? Good. I've known people like you before. Most of them started with the best of intentions, they were just willing to go a little farther than their fellows to see those intentions through. Eventually, though, they would hit a… a defining moment. A moment wherein their intentions were challenged and they came upon a moral crisis. In every single one of those moments, these people always found themselves at a fork in the road. On one side, their friends and family. On the other, their goals. Some chose correctly. Some, incorrectly."

He turned to look at me, then, his lips in a hard line and his eyes narrowed.

"Which one will you choose, Enten? When you are forced to make the decision between my daughters and your ambitions, what will you decide?"

He was worried about them, I realized. A father for the past seventeen years of his life, Taiyang Xiao Long was worried about his daughters.

With good reason, too. Ruby and Yang just returned from a captivity stint with the White Fang. As if that organization wasn't enough, Torchwick and Neo were there too. Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai were beaten to within an inch of their lives and Taiyang knew that. He knew his daughters were there to witness it. He was worried for them because it could have been them who received the beating just as easily.

He needn't worry, at least not where I was concerned.

"My goal," I started. "My… ambition has _always _been to survive. Ever since my parents were killed in front of me at three and my father killed in front of me again at twelve. Survival. Survival. Survival. Anything to survive. _Anything_…"

"You are not alone," the man observed. "Many in Remnant wish only to survive."

I hummed, more at ease, now. I had an argument to throw against his claim that I would sacrifice my team to survive because I would not. My family and my friends came first. Always first.

"I snuck out of the medical room to rescue them," I continued. "My arm was wrapped up in a makeshift cast that Sun and I created out of medical wrap and then we hopped on the nearest transit we could find and made our way to the docks. We faced down dozens of White Fang thugs and two of their allies for Yang, Blake and Ruby. The two of us: an injured student and a foreigner who hadn't even spent three full days in Vale."

I shook my head. In retrospect, it sounded absurdly stupid. "I never even thought about my own survival. The only thing on my mind was Ruby and Blake and Yang and how I was going to get them out of there, regardless of who I had to go through. I… I've never killed before, but I think I was ready to, that night."

Silence fell over the two of us. I spent the lapse in conversation reflecting upon my actions, reckless as they were, and the many ways last night could have gone wrong. My team would not be caught off guard again, not like that. Not if I could help it.

Information was half the battle and RWEBY would never want for information.

"You have nothing to worry about," I finished.

He grunted, casting a glance over at Yang. The girl was still asleep.

"You are startlingly self-aware," the man said. "The girls were right about that, I see. They wrote about how you owned up to your actions, good or bad. How frustrating it was for them that you didn't _see, _that you _couldn't _see from their point of view." He laughed quietly. "I imagine very few students here would accept being labeled deceitful and cunning without saying a word in their own defense."

I shrugged. "I know who I am. No use in hiding it. Not in this conversation."

"Well," the man said after he took a moment to observe my face. "Regardless of my doubts, I have you to thank for my daughters' safety so: thank you, again. _Thank you_. I don't know what I'd do if I lost them too…"

"You have nothing to worry about," I said again. "If anyone wants to get at my team, they go through me first."

"Perhaps," the man sighed. "But I will worry all the same. It's the father in me, I'm afraid… Now, enough of these depressing topics. I have some good news for you: the headmaster was impressed with what your team accomplished last night. He… Well, he was impressed."

"He knows about this, doesn't he," I asked, staring down at my map. This was a thought that had been bugging me since I woke up this morning. "He knows about Torchwick and his allies – why else would Goodwitch happen to be there the night Ruby met him. Why else would he insist on developing a map that covered the entirety of Vale?"

"What he knows and does not know are beyond me," the man laughed. "I only know what I am told, and I've been told that he wants to meet with your team later today. Sometime in the evening, I believe. You may want to prepare yourself for a visit from Glynda. She can be rather forceful when she wants something."

"Wonderful," I said dryly. "Why does he want to meet with us."

"That is one of the many things I do not know about Ozpin."

"Well," I started, rubbing at my eyes. "Given the timing, it's likely that he wants to speak with us about what happened last night… But if he wanted the full story then he could have just asked Ruby – she's not restricted to the medical room and she was there for the entire night's proceedings. The part Sun and I played without her involves a train ride and some homeless guy that dreams real loud."

Taiyang scoffed even as I hummed in thought.

"Is there any other reason he could want the entire team to tell him the story? Different perspectives, maybe? Weiss saw more of the White Fang rank-and-file thugs than the rest of us. Ruby, Yang and Blake saw the beating happen and Torchwick or Neo may have said something in that time… I didn't see anything interesting before I met up with the rest of the team though. I just snuck through a few warehouses and saw a few corpses. Were the corpses the reason he cared- no, that'd be under the jurisdiction of the peacekeepers who identify the bodies…"

My brow furrowed. "Why does he want me there? I have nothing to add beyond what my teammates can add and I'm stuck in this room too… it's- what do I know that they don't? What did I see? What did I do? How can I- The airship! I managed to bring down the airship and the headmaster might want to know how I- but that would imply that he has a _reason _for wanting to know how I did it which would suggest…"

I turned to Taiyang; the man was watching neutrally, his brow ever-so-slightly arched. Gone was the severe line of his lips from earlier, he was now instead smirking.

"The headmaster is going after Torchwick and his allies, isn't he?"

"You know, having it described to me and seeing your deductive skills in action are two completely separate experiences. The writing doesn't do you justice… many people I know could have come to that conclusion but very, very few could have done so as fast as you did," the blond said. "Yes, Ozpin has been tracking Torchwick's activities since he started hiring Junior's thugs. Perhaps even before that, I cannot say."

"Why does the headmaster care? He has a school to run, students to look after."

Taiyang hummed. "I think you'll find that, as you come to know him better, Headmaster Ozpin is a very wise individual. Comes with age, he says… I might not know why he does what he does, but I _do _know that he always, always has a reason."

"That's just vague enough to be completely unhelpful," I muttered. "The White Fang- no, _Torchwick _and his allies want dust. They want a lot of dust. They want it badly enough that they're willing to essentially speed-date any organization that'll give them the manpower to get what they want. They must know all that activity will make their operations less secure by virtue of more mouths to spread details so they either plan on acting soon or believe that they will be untouchable very quickly.

"…And that's about all I know. Torchwick wants dust. The White Fang are his current allies. The White Fang is _strong_. Torchwick isn't too concerned with being discovered in the long term. And, lastly, he needs a lot of dust. Enough to risk stealing from the single biggest supplier in the world: SDC. But why?"

"Dust is power," Taiyang speculated. "Our vehicles are powered by it, our weapons require it, our society thrives on it. Controlling the dust will give them leverage."

"But they only control the finished product, not the source. SDC still controls the mines and so-"

"What's this about my family's company," Weiss called as she walked into the room behind Ruby. The scowl on her face morphed into a curious expression that featured her painstakingly trimmed eyebrows arching and an expectant gaze in my direction.

My first instinct was to lie.

Lie to protect her. Lie because she was too close to the issue at hand. Lie because it was easier.

Lie.

But I couldn't do that. I made a promise, not only to myself but to my team as well. Full disclosure. No secrets. Even if those secrets were going to drag them into a conversation about an organization of which I'd rather hear nothing more. The White Fang was dangerous and, given Blake and Weiss' personal history, dragging them into a conversation about the faunus group was dangerous too.

"Hey guys," Ruby called, a smile upon her face. Her cheeks were no longer red though her happy demeanor did seem somewhat strained. She made her way over to her father's side. "Hey dad."

The man grinned widely. "Rosie! Now that you're here, we can get your updated mugshot! Your big sister still needs to get hers taken too and I figured there was no better time than when she was all patched up and stuck in the medical room." He cast a glance over at the blonde in question. "Sadly, I was misinformed about the bandage to face ratio…"

"Mugshots," Blake muttered, looking at me.

"Their own special name plates," Taiyang answered instead, turning to the dark haired girl. He extended his hand. "You must be Blake! Ruby has told me a lot about how you two read together."

"Oh dad," Ruby whined. "Why?"

Blake nodded, apparently content to ignore her leader's despair. I shouldn't have been surprised. The girl was completely and utterly unflappable when she put her mind to it. "Yes sir."

Taiyang laughed. "I'm more of a 'dude' than a 'sir'."

"Okay," Ruby interjected suddenly. "Hey dad! Meet Weiss! She's the hei-"

"The one you have girl talk with," the blond finished excitedly even as my leader's face went from strained to horrified in a half second flat. "Tell me – because my Rosebud wouldn't – about that. What do you talk about?"

"Uhh," the heiress stammered, wide eyed – it was the first time in a _long _time I'd seen her struggle for words and that made me realize how awesome this moment was becoming. "Nice to meet you. We talk about, um, schoolwork a lot. And uhh… the other students too!"

"Hmph," Taiyang frowned. "That's boring. Rose-petal hinted at-"

"Dad," Ruby shouted. "Can. You. _Please?!_"

A few seconds of silence reigned in the medical room after the girl's outburst. She was red-faced and breathing heavier than normal, staring at her father incredulously. Blake, for her part, was stone-faced, merely observing the scene in front of her while her foot unconsciously tapped against the ground. Weiss looked impatient too, though she normally hid it better; she was likely still unbalanced.

Taiyang, for his part, only turned to me, his brow furrowed and his lips curled into a slight frown.

"I think I've embarrassed her," he said slowly.

"You think," Ruby asked slowly, sarcastically.

The man reached out to hug his daughter just as the door to the medical room swung open again, this time admitting Hvid Gamle. The fourth year looked tired, prominent shadows were present under his eyes and his clothing was dirtied and unkempt. It was almost as though he'd been up all night.

"Sorry to interrupt," the fourth year began amid the expectant silence that his appearance created. "But I need to speak to team RWEBY. Hierarchy meeting."

"Oh," Taiyang hummed, releasing Ruby. The girl stepped away from him readily and pointedly looked anywhere but his direction. "I suppose the mugshots and afternoon of fun that I planned will have to wait."

"I apologize for any inconvenience, sir," Gamle offered. "I'm afraid something big has come up with the hierarchy…"

The blond nodded. "In that case, don't let me keep you any longer. I'm afraid Yang is still-"

"I'm up," Yang's voice called from behind us. I turned to find her eying me with a look on her face I'd never seen before. Her eyes were slightly narrowed and her lips were pressed together. She almost looked angry, but the expression lacked emotion. No, it was more of a thoughtful look. "I've been up for a few minutes now, dad's got a loud voice."

'_Must have overheard the conversation,' _I noted, turning back to Gamle.

"I'm not exactly supposed to leave this bed," I muttered. "The doctor is already pretty cross with me for last night-"

"_I'm _cross with you for last night, Melkweg," Gamle inserted. "What you did was stupid and endangered not only yourself but your team as well."

I frowned but did not argue the point. I wasn't ready to concede that my actions had endangered my team any more than they were _already _endangered, but they certainly endangered me. Either way, it wasn't worth contesting him over.

"But we can worry about that later," the fourth year continued even as Taiyang subtly left the room after promising to visit Yang later. Gamle stepped away from the door so the blond could make his exit.

"Rose, get Melkweg a wheelchair. You, are you good to get out of bed," the boy asked Yang.

"Yeah. I'm up," she said neutrally, picking up on the tone of the conversation just as I had. I'd never seen Gamle as serious as he was now. He seemed ready to lose it at the slightest provocation.

"Good. Get up and all of you report to the clubhouse within ten minutes. If you're late, I'll send Rod to get you and, right now, you _don't _want that."

With that, the boy left the room, leaving an awkward silence in his wake.

Given Rod Seglare and his generally anti-faunus attitude were hard to deal with at the best of times, I could only imagine what occurred to make Gamle use him as a threat now.

Whatever it was, it was nothing good.

* * *

**A/N: **Excuse the filler-ish chapter this time around. It was a necessary prelude to the next one's shenanigans. This one sets the stage for the meeting with the headmaster and the meeting that Gamle has called. The next one contains said meetings and gets the plot going for 'season 2' of Reiteration!

Again, I'll be on vacation the weekend of the 20th so the next chapter will be released the week after, on the 27th.

That said, I'd like to take a moment now and thank each and every one of you for your support throughout the six-ish months I've been writing this. Your feedback and your opinions are invaluable to me because, frankly, there wouldn't be a story without the interest you've all shown. So thank you. Thank you!

Right now, Reiteration is sitting at the 85th most reviewed RWBY fanfic on this website and that, ladies and gentlemen, is something I never thought would happen. I knew when I first started writing this that OC/SI stories were tough sells and that it'd probably hover near the bottom of the pack for its entire lifespan. Never have I been so pleased to be wrong.

Even better: this story is the seventh most reviewed OC fic in the RWBY fandom on this site because you guys _**are awesome **_and of those top seven, it is the most followed and second most favorited story! Given how comparatively young Reiteration is… that's absolutely insane!

Keep being awesome and I'll do my part and keep writing!

Now, for the replies to said awesome people:

**Undying Soul98: **Let's just say that, in season 2 of this fic, things are going to diverge drastically from RWBY's canon plot. A single pebble dropped in a pond can create ripples that reach to the opposite side. Enten is that pebble and Remnant is that pond. Thanks for the review!

**Tdychko: **Yeah, well I fucking love you. And cheese.

**MrtheratedG: **Realism is what I go for. If an OC gets tossed into Remnant then the canon story _won't _stay the same. Especially if that OC is Enten – I like to think he is a little more fleshed out than most OCs I've read. I like to think that about all my OCs, really. I agree on the fanfiction bit – a lot of people are turned off by it. That's too bad but it's also the world we live in. Just like you might find stories like Reiteration, the authors of those stories find reviewers like you – it makes writing completely worth it! Thanks for your review!

**Name-Change-No-Longer-A-Guest-Kinda: **I just like quotation marks, especially when I can put them around 'Cinder'! But no, in all seriousness, the person pulling the strings won't surprise you… but the recruits? They probably will. I foreshadowed a little bit in this chapter – can you find it? I'm glad you liked the character interactions last chapter – they almost felt forced to me. Like they were lacking something. I'd glad it appears I was just being my own worst critic! Thanks for your review!

**Jack Hunter: **Weiss is very much going to try. He team has to look absolutely fabulous, after all! Thanks for the review!

**Guest-Numero-Dos: **1\. Yes, Enten's aura was blue. No, the pipe did not make it purple. Good guess though… but there was something else at play there. 2. Yes, the map was designed to pick up every Scroll indiscriminately and it certainly could help the peacekeepers! 3. I don't have any 2v3 fights expressly planned but if I need a good segway into a scene then I'll keep that in mind! 4. I'm glad you caught the 'Blake and them' behavior. Enten didn't – he was a little too worried about the rest of his team. Thanks for the review!

**Loopty Hoops: **It took me two weeks to notice your profile picture is the default one, just upside-down and it's awesome. Na-na-na-na-na-na-Batman! Thanks for the review!

**ImaRussian: **That would be correct. I won't say _never_, but a long time? Yeah. (sad face) Thanks for the review!

**Nemrut: **You caught me in an oversight. I knew Enten would be panicked and less prone to thinking things fully through so I wrote in that talk with Sun; what I didn't think about was how it was displaying a potential team weakness in that Ruby is being protected from making tough choices. Woops! As far as the other two scenes go: the discussion only took place because the hierarchy members were handling Neo and Ruby/Yang/Blake had just gone through a few hours of captivity and Enten was about ready to collapse himself, they took a break. Sun's injury wasn't life-threatening and that's on me because I didn't communicate that well enough; knowing that, the hair-plucking scene took place for the same reason(s) as the previous one. Neo's semblance isn't an illusion… but it does have something to do with optics! Mercury and Emerald's situation will be revealed in future chapters, for now I must keep from giving anything away and finally – season 3? F it. I'm still writing. (To be completely honest, I never liked the idea of a tournament much – seemed waaaay too overdone e.g. Naruto, Harry Potter, Fairy Tail, Bleach(?) so I'm a little put out by the plot going into it). Thanks for the review!

**Eclipse-Sol: **Just started playing ME1 again. Gonna go through all three, love that game series. Thanks for the review!


	27. Chapter 27

_Later that day – Week 15, Beacon Academy, Hierarchy Wing_

The grandiose halls of Beacon Academy were quiet as team RWEBY made our way through them. The sunlight filtered in through tall, narrow, arched windows and cast the extravagant fabrics and silks that hung from the pillars and paintings along the walls in a pleasant, soft glow. The marble floors were polished to a shine and decadent chandeliers hung overheard to complete the grand theme of Beacon's hierarchy wing.

There were no students around us, it was a Sunday and many were likely working on last minute homework or otherwise enjoying the warm weather outside before winter's chill overtook Vale. Thus, the only sounds that followed us were those of Blake and Weiss' heels clicking on the ground and my wheelchair rattling ever so slightly as Yang pushed it along. I thought I could even hear a bird or two outside.

It was peaceful. It was rhythmic, hypnotizing in its simplicity. It should have put my mind at ease.

But how could I be at ease when Hvid Gamle all but demanded our presence for a hierarchy-wide meeting not ten minutes ago? How could I be calm when the normally docile and optimistic fourth year displayed an attitude of impatience and anger that I would normally associate with Cardin?

The fourth year was always calm and collected, always neutral. Gamle was the rock that appeared to hold his team – and his hierarchy – together, tenuous as that hold may be. He was easy to predict because it was required of him. Consistency produced comfort produced cooperation and that made for an efficient hierarchy. A successful hierarchy. He knew that. He _must _have known that. Four years as leader of his team _must _have taught him that. It was important. It was essential. He needed to stay calm and collected, he could not act irrationally because the very act of lashing out not only reflected badly on him, but on his team and his hierarchy as well. It put his teammates off balance. It created discord.

So why? What caused him to throw all of that out the window?

My free hand came up to rub at my eyes and I exhaled through my nose. This was the very last thing I needed right now: more stress. As if homework, healing, the map, the White Fang, Neo, Torchwick, Pyrrha and her team and even Cardin and _his _team weren't enough, now I needed to deal with _this _too?

And let's not forget about Mercury and Emerald.

"Fuck."

"We can't do anything about it until we hear what went wrong," Weiss said, almost immediately. "Stop worrying."

"Easier said than done," I snapped. Who did she think she was? Asking me to change myself like that? As if I could just _stop_ doing what I've done my entire life on Remnant?

She sighed and pursed her lips even as Blake shut her book. The faunus said nothing, however, she only kept walking alongside my wheelchair. Ruby, from her position in front of her team, threw me a backward glance.

"She's right, Enten. We can't do anything until-"

"We can always do something," I said, shaking my head. No one was helpless. _I _wasn't helpless. I could do _something. _I could always, _always_ do something. "Always."

The conversation died off at that point. Ruby turned around and kept leading our silent procession to the clubhouse. We were close now.

Close. Close. Too close. Too unprepared. What did this have to do with RWEBY? What did we do that might earn Gamle's ire? _Did _we do anything to earn his ire?

Team RWEBY was well over an entire point ahead in our class' rankings and our dominate streak showed no signs of stopping any time soon. Our grades – thanks in large part to Yang, the girl had a startlingly nimble mind – were respectable. They weren't top of the class but they were better than average and, frankly, I couldn't see Hvid Gamle getting so worked up over grades anyway.

Did we embarrass the hierarchy somehow? Was he mad about last night?

No. No, he mentioned being angry with _me _over last night, not my team, not RWEBY. Besides, that ire appeared to be a mere side note. A foot note to the true reason he was so… _off_.

"Fuck."

"You're gonna get wrinkles big guy," Yang observed dryly amidst Weiss' sigh. I ignored her.

Maybe it would be easier to figure out why Gamle might be angry, rather than just assume it was RWEBY that made him mad.

So, what did I know?

I knew Gamle was HRCN's leader. I knew that position put him under a fairly large amount of stress. I knew the fact that he was the leader of our hierarchy put him under even _more _stress. Very easily could I see him getting angry over something negative happening to his team or his hierarchy.

Perhaps it had something to do with that Tytanu Krwi? The boy that Coco and I helped him analyze…

Maybe it had something to do with Rod Seglare – Gamle mentioned him being angrier than usual. That was something I didn't think possible but given Seglare's hatred of the faunus and the fact that the White Fang was primarily made up of faunus… He might have lashed out at someone in response to the robbery.

That was a possibility.

Schnee Dust Company was seen by many in the anti-faunus faction as a bastion of human power. Whether or not the rumors of faunus labor were true, they were there and sometimes it only took a rumor's presence to attract believers. Humans that worried about the White Fang's aggression, in turn, flocked to SDC in droves, throwing their support behind the company that they saw as their shield against the newly violent faunus sect.

Seglare might be up in arms over the robbery. The White Fang lashing out at SDC was probably taken as a personal attack.

But that didn't explain _Gamle's _anger.

"Enten," a voice called from behind my team. "Enten Melkweg!"

Automatically, I started to rise from the wheelchair but Ruby immediately began fussing, pressing my good shoulder down and preventing me from escaping the contraption.

"You know what Madam Blanca said," she scolded. "I know you're worried about the meeting but you shouldn't take that out on us… Just… cooperate and _stay _in the chair?"

I grunted, unhappy, but allowed myself to be corralled back into the wheelchair – a frustratingly confining object because it stole from me my right to walk, my _control_ – and waited until Yang turned me around to face the person who called after me.

"Enten," Ye'lo Malamig muttered, somewhat breathless as she came to a stop in front of team RWEBY. Behind the dark haired girl, her team approached somewhat more sedately. Jayd Grene was slouching, the tall boy's hands were shoved deep into his pockets. Legione D and Legione E – the twins – both trailed behind their leader.

"I wanted- I mean, first off, I heard about the robbery," the girl said. To Ruby: "Are you alright? The White Fang is dangerous and pretty crazy – daddy says they're only bad for business."

"We're okay," my leader responded. "No one was hurt too badly. A new friend is recovering but he'll be good to go in a few days and Enten should be fine in two weeks!"

"We got lucky," Weiss inserted. "Your father is right to fear those savages-"

"Not all of them are bad. Some of them just want to do right by the faunus," Blake snapped, casting a sideways glance at the Schnee heiress. Immediately, a frown started to form on my face. Generally RWEBY's faunus favored shorter sentences that, frankly, almost sounded incomplete. It was only when she was alone with us, out of the public eye, or when she was feeling passionate about the conversation topic that she put her expansive vocabulary to good use. Rarely did she jump from calm and neutral to this angered state, though… she must have been brooding over the White Fang.

And I'd be willing to bet that Weiss' careless statement just provided Blake with a target for her anger.

"_Right _by the faunus doesn't include stealing several thousand tons of dust."

"Yeah, that must be, like, an entire month's worth of dust," Ye'lo speculated.

But Weiss only scoffed dismissively. "You shouldn't speak about things you know nothing-"

"Aww, there's my cheery buddy," Malamig cooed. "I can always count on you to bring some life to those boring old parties."

"You know how important one's image is to-"

"Guys, guys, guys," Ruby interjected, placing herself between Weiss and Ye'lo as she waved her hands around. "Please don't fight. Friends shouldn't fight."

The Schnee heiress sniffed and looked away. JYDE's Y only smiled sheepishly, scratching the back of her head as she did so. "Sorry Ruby," the dark haired girl said. "I just like getting Weiss worked up sometimes…"

Weiss scoffed and I could have sworn I saw her roll her eyes. It _was _rather easy to get her worked up…

"Friends support each other, too," Blake muttered, casting another sidelong glance at our white-haired teammate.

'_And if that wasn't aimed at getting her riled up, then I don't know what it was.'_

Weiss, of course, caught the glance and from my position at her side, I saw her nostrils flare. Immediately, my hand came up to rub at my eyes again. _Fucking _White Fang and their stupid deal with Torchwick. Not only were they up to something big involving SDC but they were also inserting tension into RWEBY's everyday activities.

I wanted to avoid ever making contact with the powerful organization again. I wanted to leave them be and let the peacekeeping force handle them, I wanted to let Ozpin handle them. I didn't want team RWEBY to face down an enemy like that.

"-don't know anything you obnoxious little girl!"

"Me? Obnoxious? _You _don't know what it's like to-"

Now, however, I was being forced to admit that the White Fang was going to be involved with team RWEBY in some way, shape or form no matter what I did. We had too many ties to the organization, too many emotional attachments to just ignore it. Weiss hated them and every single thing they stood for whereas Blake believed they were the answer to the faunus' problems, only that they were taking it too far. They both wanted to stop the organization but for vastly, entirely different reasons.

"-not true at all! They _protect _people and just because faunus are included doesn't mean-"

"They only kill and slaughter and steal and _destroy_! They don't do anything good for-"

Blake wanted to stop the White Fang because she believed they lost their way. She thought they could be redeemed – this I knew from our past conversations. At the time I did not know why she felt so strongly about them, strongly enough to argue the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company even, but now that I knew she used to be part of that organization… Well, I knew it was very unlikely that the black-haired girl would back down when it came to proving the White Fang was still good at its core.

Weiss wanted to stop the White Fang as well, but she didn't want to stop there. She wanted them destroyed. Obliterated. She wanted them _gone. _Her childhood fear clung to her like a parasite and despite all the progress she made toward seeing some faunus as good – namely Blake, my mother and my sister – she still harbored that deep-seeded, terror-inducing phobia of the White Fang and the faunus that worked under its banner. They were a threat to her way of life because of her very name and her survival depended upon their eradication.

No, neither would back down, of that I was certain. RWEBY would come into conflict with the White Fang.

"-think you know everything because you read those _stupid _books all day and grunt to talk because you're scared of people! You don't know _anything!_"

"Guys! Please-"

"That's rich coming from a pampered, spoilt, arrogant heiress of a company responsible for the suffering of an entire people! You sit on your pedestal and _judge _me-"

"Ye'lo," I said, as calmly as I could. "What can I help you with?"

Neither would back down. I needed to get JYDE out of here now – preventing them from seeing this weakness in RWEBY's otherwise pristine armor was impossible now, all I could do was run damage control.

"Uhh," the girl muttered, wide eyed as she watched the back-and-forth between RWEBY's W and B. "I was… What was I here for?"

"You wanted to learn how Enten beat Pyrrha," Legione D'Acciaio inserted from his position just behind Jayd. He – and the rest of his team – were also watching my team essentially breaking down in the middle of Beacon's hallways. Legione Estate, the boy's sister, didn't look ready to stop staring any time soon.

Too much tension. Too much pressure. Too many outside influences that I could not predict nor stop.

Too much for me to handle by myself.

I knew the faunus rights issue was going to be a point of contention for team RWEBY from the very beginning, as soon as I found out Blake was a faunus and Weiss was the heiress of SDC. I knew that. But at the same time, I hoped I would be able to bring Weiss around to my side of the argument. I hoped I would be able to convince her that some faunus were good and, therefore, there must be good – though misguided – faunus in the White Fang.

But I ran out of time. The robbery was the catalyst and this argument, the reaction.

'_Thank you, Roman Torchwick. You giant dick.'_

"Oh," the Malamig girl chirped. She turned her gaze to me, suddenly intensely interested in _me _rather than the fight going on just feet behind me. "Right. How'd you do it? I tried _everything _I could think of but _nothing _worked! She was always two steps ahead of me and no matter how much ice I positioned and arrows I fired, she always, _always _found a way to come out shining. Always. Just like her stupid moniker says… she was invincible."

The girl finished in a tone far more bitter and somber than I had ever heard from her before. Normally she was nearly the antithesis to Weiss' uptight and cold demeanor. This was new. Pyrrha's win streak against the Malamig child must have cut deep, especially considering the fact that it cost her tournament victories for four years in a row.

"But then you came along," Ye'lo continued, now staring at me with a scowl on her face. "You came along and you beat her and you did it in _one _match. In _one _match! One! I prepared for _years _and studied her and strategized and _everything! _Every time I faced her, I came to the fight with a new strategy. A new plan. My brother even helped me! And every time- every-single-time, she trounced me…" She paused, breathing hard. "_So._ How did you do it? How did you beat Pyrrha?"

"Do you realize what you're asking of me," I said quietly, watching her carefully. The girl was frowning now and her teammates were focused on her – it was good their attention was pulled away from my own teammates – with surprised expressions upon their faces. They didn't know the extent of her frustrations, apparently. A lack of communication? "You want me to give Pyrrha's secret away. You want me to betray her trust."

Time to see how much she knew.

Her brow furrowed – confusion.

"I thought you two hated each other," the girl said slowly. The angry expression was still present on her face but it was tempered, now, by uncertainty. "Like, everyone says you two are always at each other's throats."

"I have no grudge against Pyrrha Nikos," I stated. "Those people who say we hate each other are wrong."

"Oh," the girl said, her shoulders drooping. "Uh, well, I figured since you guys were on bad terms that you wouldn't mind just… you know, telling me about it and stuff…"

Her face was red now and her eyes were focused on the ground between us. I noticed a scowl developing on Jayd's face.

'_That boy hasn't had much luck with acne, has he?'_

Oh well, it would fade with time.

"Ye'lo," he said, cross. "How could you just try to use him like that? Especially after he helped out Dacc with his shield play by sending him to _Pyrrha_? Enten even told us about her attitude so that we could become friends easier! Of course he doesn't hate her!"

"Sorry, sorry," the girl muttered. "I just really, really, _really _need to know because it's haunted me for the past four years! You gotta understand Jayd! I'd never manipulate people just so I could get ahead… I just… just…"

"That's exactly what you were trying to do," JYDE's leader inserted.

"Don't worry, Ye'lo," I said. She felt bad for trying to manipulate me into giving her information based upon a correct assumption that Pyrrha and I were not on the best of terms. The girl was smart; I didn't have any problem with giving her the Nikos girl's secret, but I also wasn't about to do anything for free.

Of course, I was also fairly certain that my teammates would very much disapprove of me selling Pyrrha's Semblance to Ye'lo. And if Yang's hand tightening around my shoulder was any indication, then the blonde knew exactly what I was up to.

Fine. No trading secrets for favors and power. But the Malamig girl was vulnerable right now – well, more contrite than anything, really. Vulnerable had too many ties to combat for me. Ye'lo was contrite because she tried to manipulate me, I might as well take advantage of her guilt to make a new ally.

RWEBY needed them. We needed them desperately, especially if Weiss and Blake were so fired up about the White Fang.

"I'm not mad," I continued somewhat awkwardly. Several seconds passed since I told her not to worry; I still needed to mind the time I spent lost in thought. "I won't be telling you about Pyrrha's Semblance because the girl tries so very hard to hide it."

'_Except when she uses it to pull her weapon to her from across the room. Apparently killing me is more important to her than keeping her secret.'_

Taken out of context it might be – I was pretty certain a mixture of panic and anger overrode Pyrrha's good judgement at the end of the duel – it was still a valid point… How was she able to keep her Semblance a secret when her sword literally _flew _across the dueling platform of its own accord?

Before, when the girl used her power of polarity, it was always to call her shield or her weapon back after it bounced off of something – another student, most like. The object in question was already traveling toward her… adjusting its path so that it looks like she managed to calculate the ricochet angle was a brilliantly subtle use of her Semblance. I could definitely see how it remained hidden in that case. What I could not see, however, was how no one questioned a flying sword.

Perhaps my brush with death just pushed the circumstances by which the sword reached me out of the observers' minds?

Oh well. It didn't matter now, anyway.

"Maybe you'd like to train with team RWEBY instead," I continued, eying team JYDE. Yang's grip on my shoulder slackened slightly – in surprise, most likely, the girl had rightfully learned to expect deceptive behavior from me and that was something I wanted to change.

Trust couldn't be built on deception, after all.

"I… you mean together and stuff? But I thought you guys had a super secret team training program? So you could dominate team dueling days and just… win in general," the girl muttered, very clearly startled. Her teammates looked equally surprised.

They were right to be caught off guard. RWEBY was first in class rankings for a reason, any insight as to _why _that was would prove to be a valuable boon to our classmates' teams. I thought it worth giving up some of our secrets in this case, though, especially since Weiss and Blake were going to drive the team into a dangerous conflict.

This went beyond Beacon. Beyond our ranking. Staying in first was still important, but it took second place to _surviving_.

"Super secret team training," Yang repeated, laughing. "More like beat-the-stuffing-out-of-each-other-until-we-learn-our-moves."

"Something like that," I agreed. It was vastly over simplifying it, but that was what we did in a nut shell. Different combination attacks. Different terrains. Different intra-team match-ups. "So, what do you say? We might learn something from one another."

Weiss and Blake's voices reached a peak behind me and I only just resisted the urge to snap at them when I heard Ruby's voice trumpet out a reprimand immediately afterward. The argument quieted significantly after that; luckily, team JYDE was still busy mulling over my offer.

"Yeah," Jayd said after glanced at his teammates. "Yeah, that'd be great! Maybe we can… uh, work out the details when Blake and Weiss aren't at each other's throats?"

"Jayd," Ye'lo chided. "Arguments happen. Don't throw it in their faces like that!"

The boy shrugged. "Sorry," he offered to myself and Yang.

"Don't worry about it," the blonde said, winking. "You should see them when they fight over boys… they love the tall ones."

The boy's face flushed and I snorted. Whether or not she was doing it on purpose, Yang's comment did a wonderful job of keeping them off balance.

But it was Yang; she just wanted to embarrass the boy.

"Alright," Ye'lo chortled. "The ladykiller and his team will be in touch with the RWEBY squad… I guess we'll see you guys around?"

"See you around," I said even as Yang hummed in agreement.

"Great," the Malamig girl chirped, starting to lead her team's captain away by the shoulder – the boy was still flustered. She hesitated, though, before she got too far away. "And Enten… I really am sorry about that. I didn't mean-"

"Don't worry about it. None of us are saints. Sometimes we need a reason to do the right thing."

"Uh, right," she called, grinning uncertainly and waving at the both of us as her team wandered away. I watched them go silently, my mind spinning.

This was good. RWEBY had a potential ally in team JYDE. They might be useless against the White Fang, they might never help us in our future struggle against the organization, but there was always the chance that they would. It was that chance that led me to make the offer. It was that chance that I was placing my hopes upon.

"What was that," Yang demanded of me as soon as JYDE turned the corner.

"What was what," I muttered, still eying the far end of the corridor where the second place team was last seen.

"You know _exactly _what."

"I never told a lie."

"You said you and Pyrrha weren't on bad terms."

"I said I didn't bear a grudge toward Pyrrha – that's true, _she _has a grudge against _me_. Therefore, the people who say _we _hate each other are wrong – _she _likely hates _me_."

Yang growled under her breath. "You're telling them half-truths. I don't like this."

"Why not," I asked. "I just made a friend."

"Yeah, but with you, there's always a reason. You said you'd be level with us, so spill. Why did you just get all buddy-buddy with Ye'lo?"

I shrugged my good shoulder. "Me? Because she's a powerful ally, a child of the Malamig family, the family that currently has a monopoly on Scroll OS. She's also a member of a strong team, a valuable friend in our fight against the White Fang."

"Who says we're fighting the White Fang," she responded. "And for that matter, all you're doing is using her!"

"Blake and Weiss are saying we'll fight the White Fang," I said. "You know neither of them will take no for an answer – they're too headstrong, despite the obvious negatives to fighting an entire organization of militant faunus..." I shook my head. "I've come to the conclusion that RWEBY and the White Fang will cross paths again, so now I am trying to make sure we _survive _those confrontations."

The blonde shifted her weight to one leg and I heard her run a hand through her hair. "Okay… Okay, maybe we will end up… ugh. I still think we don't need to get involved with them, but even if we do, you basically just admitted to using Ye'lo and her team."

"Right now? Yes. But keep in mind that they are using us too. Training with our team _will _be a boon for them. They will learn from our teamwork and benefit from sparring with us, just as we will, them. We're both using each other. Presently, this is a mutually beneficial agreement between two teams. In the future? Who knows? Perhaps they will become friends, maybe they will be enemies. But for now, they can be our allies – they've already expressed doubts about the White Fang's intentions; our team's interests are aligned with theirs."

Yang sighed. "Well… we should at least let them know what they're getting into… I mean, ugh. Why does everything have an ulterior motive with you?"

"They might not be getting into anything. They might back away when it comes time for us to ask for their help against the White Fang. I only offered joint training with them in the hopes that they would step up if we ever asked… As for the ulterior motives… I'm just making sure we survive the near future."

"It's not 'us against the world' though. You don't need to be so paranoid."

"You're right. It's not just us. We have allies and friends to help us live, just as we will help _them _live. Now, we just have four more potential allies."

"Whatever," Yang conceded, clearly frustrated. "_I'm _going to treat them like friends first and allies second."

I scoffed. "You say that like I only want to use them."

"Don't you?"

"Of course not. Having Ye'lo around will be nice – with any luck, she might know a little bit of programming. It'll be nice to have someone to talk to while you Neanderthals gossip and do schoolwork."

"Neanderthals? Did I just get insulted?"

"Maybe," I demurred. "For now, let's just wait and see. I'm optimistic about team JYDE – they seem well-intentioned and just about as righteous as RWEBY."

"I- You," Yang started slowly, wheeling me around to face the rest of my team. "You have absolutely the most convoluted way of describing friendship that I've ever heard. Why not just say you offered them the hand of friendship?"

"I offered them the chance to train with us. My hope is that they grow to enjoy our company sufficiently enough that they will, in the future, aid-"

"That goes both ways - you want to be friends with them."

"I… well, yes, essentially…" I said, nonplussed. "If you want to put it simply, then I want them to become friends. You happy? And while we're here, I hope Sun becomes a friend too."

"I knew there was a heart under all that cold, abrasive, brash, deceitful, manipulative, aloof, intelligent, sarcastic, asshole-ish-"

"I am _not _brash."

The blonde laughed a great belly laugh. "_That's _what you correct? Brash? Dork."

"I think Ruby has brashness on lock for our team," I responded, eying our leader as Yang pushed me to where the girl in question was still speaking tersely with Blake and Weiss. "Let's just hope it doesn't get us into trouble here."

Yang sighed. "Way to put a damper on the conversation… I don't think I've seen Hvid so mad before…"

"Neither have I," I muttered. My hand grasped the Scroll in my pocket. "Neither have I."

* * *

_Minutes later – Week 15, Hierarchy Clubhouse_

"Team RWEBY," Gamle called as we entered the clubhouse. He sat with Rod Seglare and Citrin Har on HRCN's couch around the middle table. The last member of the fourth year team, Neilikka Kyyhky, was absent. On either side of HRCN, teams UHNS and CFVY were already seated on their own sofas. "You're late."

Sjeverni Suhoca offered me a nod that I only belatedly returned, distracted as I was with the coming conversation. The third year's hair was flashing erratically, something that I knew meant she was either agitated or worried.

"Aw, come on," Coco started from where she was seated with her team in the couch adjacent to ours. They were huddled, seemingly protectively, around their lone faunus member – Velvet Scarlatina. "I th-"

"You shut your mouth," Rod Seglare snapped; the redhead half rose out of his seat. "You and that _bitch _are part of the problem!"

'_Shit.'_

It didn't take a genius to figure out that the boy was referring to Scarlatina, given his still-unknown history with the faunus and the animosity that he regularly showed them because of it… So this _did _have something to do with the faunus, probably the White Fang in specific. Neil's absence suddenly became startlingly obvious.

'_What happened to her? I thought Hvid, Neil, Coco and Alistair would be able to handle Neo and some thugs…'_

Adel's hand landed on her faunus teammate's shoulder. "That's not fair," she started. "We-"

"Rod," Gamle snapped, looking away from CFVY. "Sit down. We're here for a reason."

I shifted uneasily even as Coco fell silent. Any hope that Hvid Gamle's anger had abated was lost then. It was clear that he was still very much angry and clearer still that he did not care much for his hierarchy's second year team. Given the fact that CFVY was loosely associated to UHNS, I could not find that surprising. It was common knowledge within the hierarchy that Gamle regretted ever inviting UHNS to join.

Just as UHNS' leader regretted having to invite CFVY.

I was starting to see a pattern.

"Thank you," HRCN's leader said when his teammate sat back down. Rod, alongside Citrin, leveled glares in CFVY's direction.

"For those who have not heard, last night the _White Fang_," Gamle continued, spitting the organization's name as rage started to develop in every hard line on his face. He grit his teeth and looked ready to start yelling but controlled himself at the last second. "…They decided to lash out against Vale and Schnee Dust Company last night. _Again._"

The boy nodded in Weiss' direction, a gesture that the girl returned immediately and primly. Her hands were folded in her lap and her chin ever-so-slightly raised. She looked the picture of a proper, disdainful heiress and I, frankly, could not tell if it was a front or not.

"We ran them off," the fourth year said. "But not before they made off with several thousand tons of dust. Luckily, Melkweg was able to bring down one of the gunships and we managed to capture one of the White Fang's most important allies – a woman named Neo. The rest of those… _idiots _didn't make it. Good riddance."

He swallowed and exhaled deeply even as I noticed Blake's fingers tighten around her book. Her knuckles were white. She may have known some of those people.

"_Unfortunately_," he growled, "we heard some… bad news this morning related to the attack… You may have noticed that Neil is missing today. There's a good reason for that. Her parents were killed in last night's robbery."

Stunned silence reigned until Rod Seglare broke it by scoffing. "Fucking faunus murderers."

Oh, this situation was toxic to the extreme. Neil, who also happened to be Hvid's girlfriend, had lost _both _of her parents to the attack. I thought only her father worked at the docks but there must have been some information that I was missing, else how would her mother have been killed as well?

No matter, this revelation meant nothing good for team RWEBY. We were already split over the faunus issue and now it appeared our hierarchy was quickly falling to the anti-faunus side of the fence. Blake was going to be in even more danger here, this might just spur Seglare and Har into _doing _something about their hatred of the faunus rather than just slinging insults as was their usual custom.

Blake's identity was suddenly of dire importance; we couldn't be slack about guarding that aspect of her life because if she was _known _as a faunus then…

Suddenly, I felt incredibly sympathetic for Velvet Scarlatina. She had an entire fourth year team against her, or at the very least two members of the team while the other two were indifferent to her status. Without Gamle keeping the peace… Without him intervening on the faunus' behalf…

This was bad.

Coco shifted and the large boy on her team – Yatsuhashi Daichi – placed himself in between his faunus teammate and the two fourth years. Neither of them made any sort of eye contact but their actions very clearly made a statement to those who were watching.

They were going to protect their own – admirable.

"Don't think we've forgotten about you," Citrin Har muttered toward the second year team, her straw-blonde hair moving agitatedly as she shook her head. "The White Fang has been a threat to Remnant for years. Good for nothing but causing chaos and leaving destruction in their wake – the story of the faunus in general, actually. Now… now they're just showing their true colors."

"We don't support the White-"

"That's a lie," Rod snapped, jumping to his feet again. "I don't care what you say. All you faunus and faunus supporters secretly hate everything SDC stands for. Every time there's a White Fang attack you all celebrate while the rest of us suffer!"

Adel fell silent and fixed her gaze solidly on the center of the round table. She was in a bad position here, a dangerous position, but she stayed calm throughout the onslaught regardless. I wondered then if this was what her first year in the hierarchy was like? Perhaps that was why she was able to keep her cool in the face of Rod's anger and Citrin's barbs?

Perhaps this was why I found her so similar to me – she knew how to survive. That was dangerous.

Somehow, I felt as though I was seeing HRCN truly for the first time. A team dangerously biased and without a calming voice to keep the vitriol contained. Hvid didn't care anymore.

'_Damnit all.'_

The fourth year leader cleared his throat pointedly and waited until his teammate was back in his seat before continuing: "Neil will, understandably, be gone for the next few days; perhaps the next few weeks. I don't know. What I do know is that, when she gets back, I don't want a single _utterance _of the faunus heard in this clubhouse. I don't want her to see _your _face," he said, looking toward Velvet, "ever again. Make no mistake, I am incre-"

"That's not fair," Ruby shouted, rising to her feet and spreading a shocked silence throughout the room. "It's not her fault!"

What was she doing? Was she aware of that fact that our team was in the clear? That we didn't have any of HRCN's ire directed at us right now and how very important it was to _keep _it that way?

Gamle turned his gaze on my leader and I immediately felt an indignant sort of rage well up in me and shove away the annoyance I previously felt with her. I didn't like the look in his eyes. I didn't like how he was trying – _and failing _– to stare Ruby down. She was utterly and completely right, he was only too blind to see it. Too ignorant, too emotional, too _irrational _to see the truth.

"I am completely aware that _this _faunus did not kill Neil's parents," he stated, his voice monotone. "But she _is _a faunus. One of them. A reminder-"

"She had nothing to do with it," Ruby exclaimed. I noticed Blake's knuckles tighten further around the book and wondered how it kept from being torn apart… the girl was holding onto it like a lifeline. Weiss, for her part, remained neutral. She was a stark contrast to Yang's fierce scowl.

"_Do not _interrupt me again, first year," Gamle spat even as Rod directed a glare at the younger girl. "Sit down. Shut up. And maybe, just maybe the rest of your time here at Beacon will be enjoyable."

My eyes narrowed, half in shock and half in rage, I could not keep the scowl off of my face either, despite my best efforts. Instead I looked away in an effort to calm myself. Threats made by school children weren't usually meant to be taken seriously… but this was no ordinary child. He was a young adult in his own right and, given his experience, he knew _exactly _what he was promising when he said those words.

'_A threat to one of us is a threat to all of us.'_

The conversation suddenly took on a new light in my eyes. HRCN was now an adversary, whether that label was Ruby's fault or not did not matter – they were _not _on our side anymore. A fourth year team was not a foe I wanted my team to face alone but I knew luck was not on my side, not in this case. CFVY could not be counted on to back us up. Adel had fallen silent the moment my leader spoke up, content to let the younger girl take the brunt of the fourth year team's anger… Perhaps that was her plan all along? She knew Ruby was prone to spontaneous bouts of emotion, often completely uncontrollable in their nature. Maybe Adel hoped something like this would happen, given what she went through with her team last year. There were no – known – faunus in first year… Ruby Rose and her impulsive desire to do good by everyone might have been a convenient scape goat for CFVY. A distraction for HRCN. A convenient punching bag when Velvet came under fire.

Because Ruby would always, _always _defend those she saw as innocent.

And then, there was UHNS. They were the mystery here. The boys on the team were unmotivated – they all looked content to take a back seat in this conversation, as they did with every single other conversation that involved HRCN. Useless. The remaining member, though…

I glanced at Sjev and managed to catch her eye for a split second. She winked at me, so swiftly that it might have just been a twitch of her eye, but the way her hair flashed in time with the action told me otherwise.

One friend in all of this, at least.

Still, the odds were stacked against us.

I pulled my Scroll out of my pocket, rubbing my thumb over the familiar metallic surface. It was almost a member of my family now – it spent seven years with me and lasted through every single one without even one issue. A stalwart ally, one I relied upon often.

One I would rely upon again.

"You don't threaten my sister like that," Yang erupted, pulling my attention back to the conversation as she jumped to her feet and prompted Seglare and Har to do the same.

"Watch your tone, faunus-lover," HRCN's C said, a snarl on her face as her pale hair fell partially over her eyes. Distractedly, the girl brushed it behind her ear. "Any more disrespect-"

"By defending her," Rod shouted, thrusting his finger in Velvet's direction. "You're insulting Neil's parents and everyone else those monsters have killed!"

Blake abruptly leapt to her feet too, her book clutched to her chest. "Stop acting like they're all soulless beasts! The White Fang is-"

A _loud _gong sound erupted from Gamle's hand as he slammed it down on the table, leaving every last one of us trying to blink away the sudden disorientation in our sight and the annoying ringing in our ears.

"Sit down," the fourth year said, his voice clear to me despite the damage he'd just done to our hearing. "Now! All of you!"

My teammates, clumsily and slowly, returned to the couch, rubbing their ears. I could see Blake's hands twitch toward her bow but she managed to stop herself short – given how sensitive the faunus' ears were, that must have _hurt_.

"I don't know why the lot of you care so much," Gamle said as his teammates sat down on either side of him, his voice was back to the monotone state from before. The power it held immediately after he made the gong sound was absent. I found myself relieved – it was an… off-putting thing to hear. "This _only _affects CFVY's faunus – I don't want her around Neil. You five, though? You're fine."

"They're all faunus-lovers," Rod scoffed. "Idiots."

"Maybe one of them is hiding a tail," Citrin said under her breath. The girl made no attempt to hide the accusation from the rest of the table, though. Everyone heard it.

Rod, still furious, wasted no time in leaping upon that lead. "Yeah! Both of you wear skirts _all _the time! Who knows what… what monster traits you're hiding under there."

"I'd guess at their underwear, though I wouldn't go as far as calling it monstrous," I inserted dryly, before Weiss or Ruby could get worked up. _That _comment hit home with the Schnee heiress – to suggest that she _was _her fear… Her composure was broken and her anger manifested itself as a wicked-looking glare. I needed to get the attention off my team, _now_.

Blake was pale faced and had been ever since Citrin Har suggested one of us was a faunus. Ruby was absolutely furious, indignant and angry all at once. Yang, I knew, was likely only barely keeping herself from attacking the redheaded boy across the table.

I leaned forward. The first step: misdirection. I needed to keep Rod unbalanced and Citrin contained. "That _is _what people generally wear-"

"Shut up, smart ass."

"Someone has to do the thinking – you and the blonde twat-"

"The _fuck _did you just call her?!"

"You ignorant punk," Citrin spat. Her voice started to rise. "You don't know _anything_!"

"I know enough," I shot back. "I know enough to know that the two of you have a grudge against the faunus. A grudge serious enough that it drives you crazy – makes you lose your shit at the drop of a pin."

"Those monsters-"

I stood and slammed my fist into the table, releasing just enough of my Aura to put a crack into the thick wood. "Those _monsters_ beat you," I said lowly. Rod opened his mouth, nearly beyond himself, but I cut him off before he could get started.

"They did something to you when you were young," I muttered. "They did something _horrible _to you and you hated it. You hated that you were powerless. You hated that you couldn't stop them."

_-blood flew everywhere. He wasn't speaking anymore and my legs wouldn't move any faster and I couldn't-_

"So you got stronger. You promised yourself it would never, _never _happen again. You swore you'd kill every single last one."

_-collapsed in a heap, already dissolving. It wasn't enough. I needed them to know about my clearing. My stronghold. I needed them to know how __**powerless **__they were against-_

"But you know you can't. You _know _they'd beat you if stepped up against them and it _infuriates _you. It isn't fair! Your nightmare is living and you can do _nothing _about it. Nothing! All the strength you gained. All the experience. All of it. Nothing! Worth nothing! It isn't worth _shit!"_

I swallowed exhaled heavily, only now becoming aware that I was nearly gasping for breath. The Grimm, the faunus – Rod and I were more alike than I cared to admit. The difference lay in how we handle our demons.

"Instead, you lash out blindly at the faunus you _can _beat. Because you're a coward, Rod Seglare. A spineless coward. You can't beat them. You never will. _They _beat _you_."

Seglare's eyes were flashing dangerously and I realized then that he was very, _very _close to attacking me. That was alright – he had to cross nearly eight feet to get to me and I held a distinct advantage at range.

"You don't know anything," he growled. "Nothing. Nothing!"

"You're a child that can't control his fear," I spat. "They hurt you and you can't hurt them so you take it out-"

He leapt at me, howling, but I was ready.

My right arm, almost visibly pulsing with Aura, lashed out-

A glyph appeared in front of me suddenly and Rod smashed head first into-

Yang abruptly hurled herself at the boy, landing a crushing blow on his chin even as he crumpled after impacting Weiss' Semblance. The blonde's punch sent him tumbling over the edge of the table, back toward his team, and immediately spread a dangerous silence throughout the formerly loud room.

Lamely, I allowed my right arm to drop back down to my side.

"No, Yang," Ruby called, grabbing her sister's arm when the girl tried to vault over the table after Seglare. The boy himself was just getting to his feet.

"You… I'm gonna-"

"Enough," Gamle yelled, sending a sidelong glance at his redheaded teammate. To RWEBY: "You need to-"

"Fuck that," Seglare shouted. "I'm done listening to your shit! I'm gonna kill these-"

"You will do no such thing," HRCN's leader said, rising to full height. He was nearly two inches taller than the redhead. "Sit down."

"And if I don't," the boy challenged, getting up in Gamle's face.

The larger boy remained calm, though. "Try me," he said quietly. "Try me, Rod."

The redhead snarled but retreated. "I thought you understood you piece of shit! You're just another faunus lover!" He started stalking away, back toward his team's rooms. "You'll regret this! You'll see! You'll all see!"

And with that, he was gone.

The door slamming behind him was almost a physical blow given the silence that enshrouded the room like a choking miasma immediately afterward.

Gamle exhaled through his nose and allowed himself to fall back into his couch. Next to him, Citrin Har sat quietly, her brow furrowed in either annoyance or anger. I didn't know and, frankly, I didn't care.

Ruby pulled her sister back to our team's couch and the blonde went willingly, though slowly. Her eyes were still honed in on the door Seglare disappeared through – her protectiveness was never more evident. It was comforting to know that she had my back like that.

Weiss too, for that matter. Never did I expect the Schnee heiress to lash out – defensively or not – at one of our hierarchy superiors. She squeezed my hand when I placed it on her shoulder.

Team RWEBY protected its own. Blake's secret remained just that – a secret. The color was back in the cat faunus' face and her fingers weren't gripping her book so tightly anymore. She was calmer now. Good.

"Well," Gamle said, rubbing at his eyes. Gone was the monotone voice in which he spoke for most of the meeting. Now, he just looked tired. "I guess it was too much to ask for this to go smoothly."

He looked up suddenly, toward RWEBY.

"Leave."

My eyes narrowed even as Ruby gasped and Weiss shifted under my hand.

"Is that really nec-"

"Yes," he said, cutting across me. "Yes, it is. You just assaulted a member of my team after provoking him into attacking you. Consider yourselves lucky I'm not going to report you to Headmaster Ozpin. Instead, you'll find somewhere else to sleep until this has all blown over. The last thing this hierarchy needs right now is more trouble and you, team RWEBY, are nothing but trouble."

The act of kicking us out would bring him nothing but trouble, too. Our team was first in our year – getting kicked out of our hierarchy's living area would be noticed. It would attract attention. That attention would spawn questions and, inevitably, lead back to what caused the split in the first place.

Nothing but trouble. Nothing but bad press. The hierarchy's reputation was at stake here.

I glanced at my team, finding the lot of them in wildly varying emotional states. Blake almost looked pleased and Yang wasn't far behind her. Ruby was devastated and Weiss' shoulders were tense in what I thought was anger.

"I think that would be for the best," I replied slowly, drawing surprised exclamations from Blake and Ruby.

My team was not safe in this hierarchy anymore. Citrin Har and Rod Seglare were dangerous and they now bore a grudge against us. There was a chance that elements of UHNS might be recruited against us as well – I only knew Sjev well enough to count her as a friend. CFVY might even turn on us, if Coco thought she would gain something out of it. Her team might not go along with it – RWEBY enjoyed amiable relationships with each member of CFVY – but I thought Coco Adel pragmatic enough to betray us if it would raise her standing in the hierarchy.

She and I really were similar.

But still, Blake's secret remained safe. Better latent anger be directed at our team in general than she be revealed as a faunus to these psychopaths.

Suddenly, I wished Ruby would have thought more before she accepted CFVY's offer. It would have saved us so much trouble…

"I think that's for the best," I reiterated, glancing at the girls. Blake nodded silently.

"Me too," Yang grunted, finally pulling her eyes away from HRCN's door.

"But," Ruby muttered, her head drooping. "But-"

"This is not a suggestion," Gamle stated. "This is an order. Team RWEBY will not live in the clubhouse while team HRCN is here."

Ouch. The entirety of the second semester?

It made sense but… Ruby was probably going to be beating herself up over this for weeks. It was her decision to join the hierarchy and I knew she always tried so very hard to prove that it was a good decision, to 'sell' the hierarchy to the rest of the team even when she didn't need to. We accepted her choice.

But this? This was going to stay with the younger girl for a long time to come.

I caught Yang's eye and jerked my head toward our door. The blonde was already gathering her younger sister up in her arms – Ruby was breathing heavily.

"Come on," I muttered to Weiss as the sisters started pacing toward the door. "I'll help you pack your stuff."

The heiress nodded mutely, staring after our leader. Blake rose too.

The same silence that followed Rod Seglare's exit from the room followed team RWEBY to our door. We did not slam it but the soft 'click' of the mechanism locking into place felt like a symbolic divide between us and the rest of the hierarchy. It signaled our abandonment. It was not a physical blow, it did not make me flinch like Seglare's had.

It was an emotional attack.

Ruby collapsed fully into Yang's arms and bawled.

* * *

**A/N: **First off, big shout out to an old reviewer of mine: brainthief. That 'we aren't all saints' quote came directly from one of his reviews and I thought it fit the theme of this story perfectly. Just needed a way to use it!

Second: how you guys been!? It's been three weeks and that left me with plenty of time to write this chapter and even get a start in on the next one (which was actually supposed to be part of this one but I started expanding the original scenes and…. Here we are!). We're in a sort of transition period between semester 1 and semester 2 now, some overhead to take care of, plot lines to wrap up and summaries to write. Have no fear though! It'll be done in a chapter or two.

Thirdly: I feel like a broken record at this point but I'll keep saying it because it never gets any less true: you guys are awesome! The response this story is generating… I can't tell you how encouraging that is!

**AP0084: **I have a plan for Enten's Semblance, it's nothing so powerful as spontaneous evolution but – and I may be biased – it's pretty awesome by itself! Thanks for your thoughts!

**Oyshik: **I admit, I thought of biotics frequently when I wrote Enten's fight scenes. His Semblance really is similar, huh? Thanks for your review!

**Guest Numero Dos: **I like that quote and completely agree that Enten was headed down that path there for a while. I'm glad you like my filler chapters – I try to make them as interesting as I can, given what they are. On the Semblance: it doesn't have anything to do with emotion, I'm afraid! Thanks for your thoughts!

**KyuubiNoPuma: **His name would be my name – Josh. That won't come into play in the story, though, part of that line between personal information and general information and all that. Thanks for your thoughts!

**5 Coloured Walker: **What do you mean by a 'bipod that comes down into a V to impact the ground'? Some kind of team weapon? I'm curious now… Thanks for your review!

**Name-Change: **I'm impressed you have the dueling schedule down so well. I think it's pretty cool that you like the story that much! And as far as the time until Enten is good to go again – I intended the blow dealt to him by Neo to set him back a few days, though I don't think I explicitly mentioned that. On the Semblance: you've so damned close that you mentioned the actual Semblance in his your review! And lastly: Enten does need some male friends, true dat. Let's go Sun! Thanks for your thoughts!

**Riero: **I can't provide a million dollars, unfortunately. I can, however, thank you for sharing your thoughts! Thanks!

**Lucifer Daemon: **As good as I am, I'm sure there is better. I just have to hope my best is good enough! Thanks for your thoughts!

**MrtheratedG: **Thanks for your thoughts – Enten's hogging the spotlight is actually something I worry about most for this fic. Team RWEBY has such chemistry, all of them are strong characters in their own rights. It's difficult to do them all justice, but I'll keep trying! Thanks for your thoughts!

**SidJ: **Enten'll pull through, just some deep-seeded fears and worries that he needs to get through. A little help may be warranted, but that's what a team is for, right? As for the romance… maybe. I'm thinking about it… Thanks for your thoughts!

**Victory3114: **I really want to make an Aura saber happen now. It's just a matter of fitting it into the story without going 'oh look, a random Aura saber!' hah! Thanks for your review and for your kind words!

**Nemrut: **Taiyang is a mutli-classed D&amp;D dad. Best way to describe him, prestige'd into Ruby and Yang embarrassment. As far as the question mark thing goes: there's a lot of different ways to style sentences (b/c English can never be simple), I just like the comma style the most. It looks nicer to me… which is an admittedly flimsy reason. Oh well! And as a last note: it turns out having Weiss in a hostile situation where someone has a beef with RWEBY _was _a good thing indeed! Are you psychic? Thanks for your review!


	28. Chapter 28

"_Do you honestly believe your children can win a war?" –James Ironwood, to Ozpin_

* * *

_Later that day – Week 15, Headmaster's Tower_

I was tired.

It had been a long day and an even longer weekend. Pyrrha's duel. Mercury's visit. The kidnapping and the robbery. The hierarchy drama… It was all so very exhausting.

It was all so very disenchanting.

I was in a good mood going into the hierarchy meeting – JYDE accepted my offer and I managed to get Neo captured and thereby neutralized as a threat. For the first time this year, it felt like I had some tangible proof that what I was doing was making my team safer. It almost felt like I was back in control of my life.

And then HRCN blew up on us.

I knew now that I should have handled it better. I never should have provoked Rod Seglare the way I did. Never should have let my temper get the best of me. But when Ruby was threatened… I just… well, apparently I was not as logical as I like to think.

Whatever, what's done is done and it was going to stay that way. No use lamenting over failures – I could only learn from them now.

And learn from them I would.

I was done letting Ruby's way of thinking pollute my better judgement. The girl had this naïve desire to do right by everyone and everything; anyone she saw as unfortunate or unfairly treated would immediately have her support. It was a nice thought and a great way for her to play the hero.

It was not, however, _safe_.

Not everyone could be saved, I knew that much personally. No matter how hard you tried or how you approached a situation, people would die. People would get hurt. It was inevitable, especially in a world as cruel as Remnant, with an enemy as relentless as the Grimm.

And that wasn't even considering Torchwick and his merry gang of criminals.

No, I was through playing nice. If Ruby wanted to save everyone then she'd have to go through me to do it.

Did that make me a bad guy?

Maybe. Probably. But I was willing to be the bad guy if it meant my team was kept out of danger. We were through helping people like Velvet Scarlatina and CFVY; they offered us nothing in return but idle conversation. If we had to help people, let it be our allies. The people who would have our backs in a conflict.

It was what I hoped JYDE would become.

Perhaps even JNPR. I didn't have any issues with apologizing to Pyrrha Nikos and Jaune Arc; my ego was a hindrance to logic and I didn't pay it any mind. Bluffing got you into situations you could not handle. Bragging revealed your secrets to your enemies. No, my only pride was my programming, this I knew. If I had to get down on my knees and grovel, if I had to play the repentant sinner to get JNPR on RWEBY's side, then I would.

Because this wasn't just a fight for first place anymore.

Still, it was a tall order. I'd been very successful in alienating Pyrrha and, by extension, her teammates. It was something I regretted now, there probably wouldn't ever be any kind of meaningful bond between us but… that was still workable; as far as I knew she only harbored minor negative feelings for my teammates. Animosity by association. If they, at least, could befriend her again then our team would be made stronger for it.

And strength was something we would need desperately.

The girls probably wouldn't like this. I doubted they would explicitly disapprove but… well, this mindset led me to manipulate JNPR and damn near tear apart my team just a few weeks ago. I should know better than to return to it, I should have learned my lesson.

But there was a lesson here for Ruby, too. One that _she _needed to learn.

My tendency to manipulate people might make me enemies but it _did _help our team attain that number one ranking and promptly jump ahead with a lead of more than a point. It got us news articles, it got us reputation, it gave us _potential_.

What did Ruby's tendency to help people get us?

Not much. Suhoca, of the third year team UHNS, was our friend because of the girl's decision to join the hierarchy. Then again, I was the one who offered joint training sessions to her and, of course, we were now alienated from that very same hierarchy.

It helped RWEBY grow together as a team, too, that much I could admit. The girl was earnest in her desire to befriend everyone and that certainly eased the process of getting to know one another.

But no, I was not convinced she was right. I was not convinced that there was strength in acting altruistically. Not when there were so many selfish people like Coco Adel willing to take advantage of that altruism.

We wouldn't get stronger. Not like that.

We wouldn't survive.

My feet hit the bottom of the stairs leading to the Headmaster's office and I started up them slowly. It was a familiar path to me by now, given I'd visited the man several times already this semester. The trip to the top of his tower – placed in the center of Beacon Academy's expansive campus – would take several minutes.

More time to think.

Blake and Weiss were in the library, pouring over publically available crime reports on dust thefts. They wanted to find a pattern, to draw lines between the timing of the acts and the locations. They felt that, if they managed that, then they would learn where Torchwick was going to strike next, before he did it.

Of course, they weren't thinking of everything and they weren't willing to listen to me when I tried to explain why…

Torchwick just lost what appeared to be a key ally in Neo. The woman was currently locked up… somewhere and most definitely unavailable to the man. She was strong, worth dozens of White Fang grunts, and Roman would be more limited in what he could do without her. That would have to be accounted for.

Not only that, but the White Fang was a new addition to Torchwick's gang. Most of the crime data out there probably covered time periods when the man was using local thugs and small-time gangs to assist him. The resources that the White Fang brought to the table enabled him to strike at bigger targets, more valuable spots, like the docks. Studying past data would not reflect that.

But no, they weren't willing to listen to reason. They were both fanatical in their desire to find _something _on Torchwick and the White Fang and me telling them that they _couldn't _didn't jive well. They wanted results and they weren't willing to wait around until we could find a more useful resource to produce them.

So, they were wallowing away in the library, working with old data that wouldn't allow them to consider the new variables and would likely find nothing of import. Who knew how long it would take them to figure that out.

Whatever.

At least they were doing something.

Ruby was currently catatonic in our old – now current – dorm room, Yang on hand to comfort her.

I felt for her. Even now, my chest felt tight. Even now, my breath occasionally came to me in ragged gasps. It hurt. I _hurt _because she hurt.

I didn't like that. I wanted to make it stop. I wanted to make sure she never hurt again but in order to do that her altruism had to stop too.

Unfortunately, I didn't think that was possible.

Just another variable to consider.

If her altruism could not stop, then I would have to stop people from taking advantage of her. It would have to be done from the shadows, too…

No, the girls wouldn't like this at all.

My feet came upon the hallway that would lead me to the Headmaster's office faster than I expected and I stopped briefly at the top of the stairs because of it. Around me, the hallway curved forward, outlining the circular shape of the office itself. It was decorated with plain, dark green wallpaper and there were busts of famous hunters and huntresses that attended Beacon in the past placed every-so-often along the walls. The floor was carpeted and the ceiling, low. The first time I came up here, that was a startling change from Beacon's normally high-arched interior.

But now it was uninteresting. Only a small afterthought in the face of the reason I came up here.

I needed to tell Ozpin that his application was ready for a prototyping phase. I also needed to share with him the fact that Mercury and, apparently, Emerald were more than they seemed at first glance. I did not know why they were present on the night of the robbery or why Neo beat them to within an inch of their lives… what I did know was that they, and whomever they worked for, were interested in my team.

That didn't sit well with me.

I urged my feet forward with a sigh. The tight feeling in my chest persisted. Like a physical reminder that this world was dangerous. That I needed to act. That I needed to _preempt._

It had been a long, long weekend.

I knocked on the door when I reached it more out of habit than anything – the Headmaster and I had grown somewhat comfortable with each other since I started working with him on the map but given how frequently Goodwitch met with him, I learned quickly that I _always _knocked, no matter what. She… had words for me the first time she caught me barging in unannounced.

"Enter," Ozpin called from within the room.

So I did.

The door opened and I was greeted with the very same room that I remembered: circular walls, dark green wallpaper, carpeted floors and a high, open ceiling. Where normally there would be a roof, there were gears, much like the ones within a clock. They were suspended and rotating above my head, just as they always were. There was a heavy-looking desk placed opposite the door – also featuring rotating gears just under its surface – and behind the desk was a window that overlooked Beacon Academy's grounds and, farther in the distance, the city of Vale.

An impressive view, to be certain. The pristine towers and high-arching buttresses of Beacon were a sight to behold even from down in the city, so massive they were. From up here, it looked like you were atop the world.

Standing just behind the desk but in front of the window was the Headmaster himself. The white haired man was sipping at his coffee – plain, no sugar, never fresh out of the pot – even as he watched me enter the room. Beside him, Glynda Goodwitch stood with her arms crossed and her Scroll held within them, against her chest.

There was another person in the office, though. One that came as a surprise to me.

Taiyang Xiao Long.

"Enten," the man called jovially as I came to the stop in the center of the room. "You're looking- erm, you're looking pretty beat up actually. Yang didn't give you too hard a time, I hope?"

Yang? Apparently I was missing something.

The man must have caught wind of my confusion, because he continued mere seconds later.

"She was never asleep when we were speaking in the medical room," he said, grinning. "Thought she could trick dear old dad, hah! I learned how to see through that when she started messaging boys after her bedtime… I figured she would grill you on our conversation."

"Oh," I muttered, swallowing. "No… we, uh, we've all got something else on our minds now." Then, turning to Goodwitch: "Thank you for keying our Scrolls back to the dorm room, Professor."

"There is no need to thank me, Mr. Melkweg," the woman said softly. Even now, it was still shocking to me to hear her speak in anything but an authoritative tone. "I understand the stress and conflict that comes along with attending our school better than most students believe. It is… unfortunate, what happened to your team. But not unheard of. The hierarchy system is not perfect and though your situation is rare, I have seen it happen before."

The Headmaster hummed even as Taiyang shifted, pushing himself off the wall that he was leaning against.

"Are the girls alright," the blond asked, inadvertently cutting Ozpin off.

"Ah," I stalled, trying to pick my words carefully. A glance at the Headmaster told me he was more than content to let me answer the question instead of say what he was going to originally.

"Yes," I said slowly. "Yang is taking it well. Ruby… She, well… She made the decision in the first place-"

"And has probably come to realize that it was not the correct one, now," the man said, sighing as his face fell. "She's very critical of herself, especially now, given she's two years younger than her peers here."

The man fell quiet then, looking down toward the ground.

He was right, I realized. He was right that Ruby was probably taking this harder than she should; I knew she struggled early on in the year with self-confidence issues and even noted that it was probably, in part, due to her age. I should have seen that this situation would likely awaken those old doubts.

If Yang didn't address them, I certainly would when I next saw her. Naïve and overly-trusting she may be, Ruby was a good leader. A great friend. A wonderful person. She didn't deserve her own doubts picking away at her mind.

A confidence boost was certainly in order.

Now if I could only get her to stop trying to help everyone she met… perhaps it would be best to worry about one thing at a time.

"I will endeavor to make this quick," Ozpin inserted, drawing the room's attention back to the meeting at hand. "I imagine the two of you will want to get back to your team," he said to me, "and your daughters," he said to Taiyang, "as quickly as possible. So: Enten, I believe you wanted to show me your map…"

"Yeah," I said, nodding. Quickly, and as discreetly as I could, I twitched my eyes toward Taiyang. "But first: something came up in the medical room that I wanted to discuss with you…"

The Headmaster hummed and the edge of his lips quirked upward. "I see. Then please speak freely."

He trusted Taiyang, then. I suspected as much, given the blond was allowed to make an appearance for this meeting. Add to that the fact that Ruby often mentioned her father being friends with the Headmaster and it was almost a foregone conclusion that Ozpin wouldn't have a problem with him being here.

Still, one could never be too careful.

"I was visited by a foreign student in the medical room," I started. "At first I thought him lost, but then he started asking pointed questions about me that suggested he knew enough to be looking for me, specifically. I was… wary, so I mentioned certain facts about myself… hooks, if you will. An invitation to open up further."

Ozpin's expression hadn't changed much; the man was still sipping at his drink and Goodwitch was only watching stoically. Gone was her sympathy from earlier.

"My team is ranked first in our year now, so I thought he had just heard of us by word of mouth or through a news article and came to scout out the competition… but he didn't know what Beacon's ranking system entailed or what it meant."

_That _got a reaction. The Headmaster's cup was now on his desk and his hands were lying flat upon the glass surface. He was slightly bent forward, over the object, and staring at me unblinkingly in a very… off-putting manner. Goodwitch still hadn't moved, though and from what I could see out of the corner of my eye, Taiyang hadn't either.

Perhaps they didn't know as much as the Headmaster?

I knew this was related to Torchwick and the White Fang, else Mercury and Emerald never would have shown up last night. What I did not know, was _how_. That was what I wanted to figure out. That was the missing link. If I knew what to expect from the two would-be students, then I would be able to guard against them better, perhaps even neutralize them.

But that was assuming they were enemies. They might be allies, they might be working for some third party.

In the end, I didn't know.

I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know and it was _frustrating _because I was _so _close. I could feel it!

"The issue," I continued slowly. "The reason I found his visit suspicious… was that he identified me based upon my team. My team, who is only known for being ranked first in our year… He knew _nothing _about that. So I pressed him."

"I can imagine that was quite an… _experience_ for him," Taiyang said dryly. "The lad might've gotten lost and tried to pass off knowing you out embarrassment. Beacon is a big place…"

"I agree. But the medical room is too far out of the way for someone to simply stumble upon it by chance. Too many doors between it and the main thoroughfare. Too much of a coincidence."

"And your hunch, Enten," Ozpin asked quietly – it was the first time he used my first name. "Did anything come of it?"

"Uh," I stammered, idly noting that Goodwitch had shifted uncomfortably. Perhaps she was just as surprised – or uncomfortable – at hearing my first name as I was.

"Yes. Yes… something did. He linked himself to Roman Torchwick."

Recognition. I saw it flash across Goodwitch's face and Taiyang made no effort to hide his scowl. The Headmaster did not react but if two knew then… They knew. They _knew_.

Success. Relief. An outpouring of positive emotion flooded me. They knew and that meant they might be able to _help_.

"You know the name," I observed to the room at large.

No one said anything for a long moment and, slowly, Ozpin turned to look out the window behind him.

"I suppose it was only a matter of time," the man said blandly, quietly. "I had hoped it would not come so soon; admittedly, I hoped it would not come at all. But the moment Weiss Schnee returned from that forest, paired with Ruby Rose, I knew the day would come… Ms. Schnee would become interested in the dust robberies targeting her company and Ms. Rose would be able to identify the man responsible for them.

"I am not comfortable with my students being placed into deadly situations. I doubt I will _ever _be comfortable with the thought," he continued, glancing toward Taiyang. "But I am also aware that… that this conflict will not distinguish between innocence and guilt. Everyone will be put in danger. Everyone is at risk. That is the nature of Remnant. The nature of our ticking time bomb."

An uneasy silence fell over the room as soon as the man stopped speaking. Goodwitch had upon her face a grim frown and Taiyang's brow was furrowed deeply. Both of them did not show any surprise at the Headmaster's proclamation, though… This was old news to them. They were in the loop with regard to the dust robberies, to the group behind them.

They knew.

That was good.

The ticking time bomb line, not so much. That was just about as foreboding as the look Ruby would get when her strawberries were taken.

Except worse.

Much, much worse.

"You know," I ventured slowly when no one spoke up after several more seconds. "You know about Roman Torchwick. What he wants with the dust. You know about Neo, Mercury and Emerald."

"We know less than you might think, Enten. What we do-"

"Headmaster," Professor Goodwitch exclaimed, a startled expression upon her face now. "Surely you do not mean to bring him into this? You know what would happen!"

The white haired man did not respond, instead, he continued to look out of his window. In absence of his reply, the blonde woman turned to Taiyang.

"And what about you? You know your daughters will be involved if-"

"I know my girls," the man said. "I know they are both fiercely loyal to their friends. I know that two of their friends have a personal interest in this group… You draw the conclusion."

"Better they learn from us what otherwise they would learn from personal experience," Ozpin stated, finally turning back to the room at large. He looked at Goodwitch in particular. "You know as well as I that our enemies will not hesitate to use lethal force against them. They will be safer with our help. They are already targets."

Frowning now, the blonde woman turned to me.

"Mr. Melkweg, you are bright boy, do you not see that pursuing this conflict would put you – and your team – in great personal danger?"

I sighed deeply, glancing out of the window behind Ozpin's back. There was something grey placed along the edge of the circular glass now… or maybe it was just the man's hair. It was too close to tell.

"I am f- I think I know. I believe our lives will be put in danger. I believe we might die. I believe that chasing down this group… this… this revolution might end up killing us," I said slowly, shaking my head. "But I'm also aware that Weiss and Blake are going to fight anyway, with or without me. And if they fight, then Ruby fights. Yang fights. _I _fight. _Team RWEBY_ fights."

I paused and swallowed, turning back to Ozpin. "All or nothing. Where one goes, the rest follow."

If there was one thing that the nightly talks and all the team training had instilled in us, it was an intense feeling of loyalty. We would have our fights, that was a given, we were five different people and bound to disagree from time to time. But those fights would not define us. They would not stop us from protecting each other. They would not sever our bonds.

That was something I would carry with me to my grave. Never before had I felt like I was truly ready to die for someone, until I got to know my team.

"Team RWEBY fights together, or not at all."

Another moment of silence lingered after I quieted but Goodwitch did not argue further. She was scowling and her knuckles were white, I even thought I saw some anxiety in the tilt of her brow. Worry. She was worried, genuinely so.

"That is why I am letting this happen," Taiyang said quietly. "I see the same bonds in my girls' team, in _your _team, Enten, that I shared with mine… I understand."

"They would be safer with-"

A knock sounded at the office door suddenly, cutting off the Headmaster before he could finish his thought and plunging the room into another bout of silence. The occupants looked, as one, to Ozpin and if I wasn't mistaken… the man had a frown on his face.

"Come in," he said at length.

The door opened, admitting a tall man that carried with him an aura of authority. One that discouraged me from speaking against him or acting out at all in his presence. It was… It demanded respect. Attention. He had quite a presence.

"Ozpin," the man said warmly as he entered, idly smoothing out his white overcoat and organizing his salt-and-pepper hair as he came to a stop just beside me. He folded his hands behind back and straightened his spine – an act that reminded me strikingly of Weiss. She held herself with the same strictness that this man did, but where his posture was strong and intimidating, Weiss' was graceful and elegant. "It's good to see you again."

"And you, General Ironwood," the Headmaster said as he came out from behind his desk to shake the man's hand. I stepped away from the pair, toward the side of the room where Taiyang still leaned against the wall.

"Formalities," the man scoffed, glancing toward Goodwitch. "And you, Glynda. It's good to see you as well."

"James," the woman said neutrally. "You traveled with your students this year."

"I found it necessary," the man confirmed with a nod. "The… current state of events demanded I leave Atlas. Besides, it is a good opportunity to catch up."

"Indeed," Ozpin intoned. "Though I wonder – has air travel become so dangerous that you require a small army to get you here?"

The man frowned, the first time the smile he'd worn since entering the room faded. "It is a necessary precaution… I- May we speak about this later? Perhaps after you have finished your meeting."

Ironwood gestured minutely toward myself and Taiyang then and immediately my curiosity was peeked. The man had something he wanted to keep quiet, something he only wanted to discuss with Ozpin and, perhaps, Goodwitch. It could easily be festival business or something to do with Atlas' academy – of which the man was headmaster, if Weiss' information on the country could be trusted. I thought there was something more, though, something else at play here. Else why would the man avoid even mentioning the subject at all? Surely he could state he had business to discuss with Ozpin regarding the tournament and not give anything away.

No, there was something else here.

I started pacing toward the window behind Ozpin's desk. The man mentioned an army… suddenly, the grey object I saw earlier reminded me greatly of an airship.

Ozpin hummed from somewhere behind me – I could not see the room's occupants any longer, turned toward the window as I was. It was just a few more steps away now.

"This meeting has only just begun," the man stated. "Would you like any coffee? …No? Very well, all the same, I see no problem in discussing your worries now."

I reached the clockface-window and promptly stopped short of approaching it fully. Even from my vantage point several feet away, I could see, at the very least, no less than _three _airships hovering around the cliff that Beacon rested upon, the very same one that overlooked the city of Vale. These were no normal airships, either, they were not the same kind of airshp that the White Fang used to rob the docks… these were _large_. These were meant for _war_.

And they were several times larger than their counterparts. Massive in size and scope, to the point where it was a wonder to me how they were able to stay in the air at all.

I stepped closer to the window. More airships. More and more and more and more…

"Now? If you insist on pushing this, then I will speak plainly," Ironwood said – he sounded annoyed now. "I do not wish to discuss my worries while one of your students and an unknown man is present in the room – both of whom I do not wish to offend, of course, but all the same…"

"Taiyang Long," the blond said behind me and I heard some shuffling that indicated the man was moving. The clap of hands meeting told me that the movement's purpose was a handshake. "Xiao Long, if we're being formal."

"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance," Ironwood responded.

"I'm a father of two and a professor over at Signal," Taiyang continued. "My daughters actually attend school here, you know? Oh! Would you like to see them? I keep my mugshots updated!"

"Ah," the General stalled, evidently hoping either Ozpin or Goodwitch would come to his rescue. Neither did, so he continued: "I must decline, Mr.-"

"Please, call me Taiyang, everyone does!"

"Very well, Taiyang… I must decline."

"Oh," the man said, sounding rather put out. "First Yang didn't want to hear about my chicken pot pie recipe and then Ruby snuffed me when I tried to feed her like I used to when she was a baby! I wouldn't have done it had she not gotten apple sauce on her chin! I swear that girl learned her manners from her mother. _I _would never eat so messily. Never!"

Unbidden, a grin appeared on my face.

"I remember Yang saying you did just that on her first day at Signal," I mentioned as I turned back to the room at large. "Something about you loudly and obnoxiously marking her as your daughter, after which you proceeded to smash your face into the blueberry pie and eat it like Zwei."

The man was grinning. "Almost never."

The room descended into silence once more and I came to a stop just beside Taiyang. James Ironwood was still glancing about the room uncertainly while Goodwitch and Ozpin both seemed unbothered by the awkward atmosphere.

I, for my part, was too focused on my thoughts to pay much mind to the room's occupants. The General brought ships, alright, dozens of them. So many that the sky was nearly blotted out in a sea of metallic grey war machines. There might even be one hundred of them up there…

And there was a reason. Of course there was a reason. A reason that the man wished to discuss with Ozpin, no less. And if it involved Ozpin, then it might just involve Beacon – and Vale – as well.

Nothing connected it to Torchwick and the White Fang, _yet_, but that was the only problem I knew of that could be large enough to warrant such a strong show of military force. An army showed up when there was an enemy to fight, after all.

"So," Taiyang ventured slowly. "You don't want to see my mugshots?"

Ironwood sighed. "I think it might be best if I return at a later time. I need to get my students settled in, regardless… the usual accomodations, I assume, Oz?"

"Yes," the Headmaster said quietly. "I apologize for-"

"Don't worry about it," Ironwood said amiably. "I'm the one who barged in. We can always speak later."

The man reached the doorway and paused once his hand landed on the doorknob.

"It was nice seeing you again, Glynda. And nice meeting you, Taiyang," he said over his shoulder. His eyes met mine briefly, then, and I arched one of my eyebrows in response.

I didn't know what to make of this man. I didn't know him, though he seemed to be on friendly terms with the Headmaster and Professor Goodwitch… but that wasn't enough for me to trust him outright. I didn't know what he wanted or why he was here with an army at his back. The only things I knew about him were facts that Weiss shared with me, usually incidentally. I knew he was widely criticized for militarizing the hunter force of Atlas, a force that was supposed to be neutral. I knew that he was honorable, as far as the Schnee family could tell. I knew that Weiss had several cousins and family members in his employ.

But that was it.

So, I did not stop him when he turned away and left the room. I stayed silent until the door closed behind his back.

"Why is there an army parked outside your academy, Headmaster?"

The man sighed, his shoulder sagging. It was a rare thing, to see him openly show weariness. I'd learned early on that he hid it well. I knew very little about the man in general, but the fact that he did not show his doubts, his worries or his fatigue was something that I knew for a fact.

"There is an army outside of my window," the man started, pacing around his desk until he was behind it again. He took a draw from his cup. "Because James knows of the threat we face. The very same one that you have inadvertently stumbled upon with your team, Enten."

"Roman Torchwick," I muttered. "Him. Neo. Mercury. Emerald. The White Fang… Ironwood knows?"

"He does," Ozpin confirmed. "But let us return for a moment to those names. Roman Torchwick, I recognize. Mercury and Emerald, I have heard as recently as last night… but Neo? That is a name I am unfamiliar with."

"The woman that was captured last night. Short, carries an umbrella."

"Ah," the man said. "I see. She has not spoken a single word since her capture, I am told. Vale's Peacekeeping force is assembling a case against her as we speak."

"She's better than me," I admitted. "More skilled. Faster. Smarter. I wouldn't have beaten her back the first time if not for Blake's help. The second… Sun saved me then."

"You have faced her before?"

The man sounded interested now, indeed, both Goodwitch and Taiyang were eying me too. Apparently when Ozpin said they did not know much, he was not lying.

"Yes. The night Ruby and I went after Jaune… We stumbled across Neo and Torchwick – they captured Jaune because _he _stumbled across their operation with Junior's thugs too. Another dust robbery."

"I see. And what do you know of her?"

"Ah… She fights with an umbrella and has a thin sword hidden within it. Uses illusions of some kind… Oh, and she's very short and easy to rile."

"I imagine you will find that all of your opponents are easy to rile when faced with your cunning, Mr. Melkweg," Goodwitch said dryly. "You have a… talent for unbalancing people."

"Thank you."

"That was not a compliment. It was a warning."

"No, but I'll consider it a compliment."

The woman sighed, a frown upon her face even as Taiyang laughed.

"Reminds me more and more of Qrow with every passing day," the man exclaimed. "He used to annoy Summer and Branwen so much… it was any wonder our team got anything done!"

"Your team was special. Unique," Ozpin said. "As is team RWEBY."

Goodwitch growled under her breath. "Are you certain involving them in this conflict is necessary? They are first year students!"

"No," the Headmaster said. "I am not. I do not know what this decision will mean in the future. It might mean the deaths of five promising young souls. It might mean Remnant will be saved and The Queen, stopped. Even still, it might amount to nothing, in the end… I do not know. Only time can tell."

The man turned his gaze back to me. "Your team will involve itself with this conflict in one way or another – the only thing I can hope for is to keep you safe throughout it. The Queen – Roman Torchwick's superior – is an elusive figure, one that Ms. Rose saw the night she was accepted into Beacon. It was that night that this decision was made.

"Now, Enten, I believe we have much to discuss," the man continued after taking another draw from his cup. "From this point forward, I will treat you as an equal. I will not seek to command you, I will only advise. You, and your team, will be our vanguard. Our scouts. If you are willing, you will go where none of my other… operatives can."

Taiyang scoffed. "Operatives. She'd be _ecstatic _to her herself called-"

"There are places that my _friends _cannot go," Ozpin continued, a small smile on his face now. "Places wherein they will be recognized on sight, where our enemy will hide away before they can be found out. Your team, despite being first in your year, does not have the notoriety or the renown that other huntresses and hunters do, particularly the reputations of my friends. It is in this anonymity that you will act."

"You want us to investigate leads. Chase down rumors. Find out more information… more secrets?"

"To put it simply: yes."

Well, that was better than I hoped for. Ideally these rumors would keep my team out of harm's way, for the most part. We wouldn't be doing the fighting or the sabotaging or foiling any plans… but we'd still be helping to stop the White Fang and Roman Torchwick.

"I think I speak for my team when I say: where do we start?"

And Ozpin smiled.

"I fear I will not be able to make this quick any longer."

* * *

_Later that day – Week 15, First Year Dorms_

It wasn't until night had fallen that I returned to RWEBY's dorm room. The once familiar path came easily to me still and it was with a small feeling of nostalgia that I walked it. This room saw us go from five individuals to one team, after all. It saw bonds built. It saw trust develop. It saw fights and apologies. It saw laughter and it saw sadness.

It was a part of us, I thought. Perhaps that was melodramatic but our dorm room was… I didn't know what it was, but it felt right, returning to it now. Returning to our roots. I was extremely glad that it was still free – and even 'arranged' in the same way we left it, haphazardly stacked beds and all, given the dorm rooms were going to be used to house the foreign students.

Foreign students that started arriving today, actually.

Professor Goodwitch really came through for us by assigning us back to this room without any fuss.

I came to a stop outside our dorm, inside the plain, windowless hallway, and took a brief moment to reflect on just what got us here. On how team RWEBY reached this point.

Conflict.

Whether it was conflict within the team, conflict with another team or conflict with our hierarchy, we were always, always mired in conflict. In arguments. We thrived on them, I realized.

It was my conflict with Weiss that led me to see her as more than just the Schnee heiress. It allowed me to see past the façade she put up and discover that there was more to this girl than the snobbish, irritating persona that was her public face… The day I jumped at the chance to blame her in her fight with Ruby was the day our friendship started.

And that very same fight between Weiss and Ruby allowed a mutual respect to grow between them. A respect that, one day, would develop into a friendship – though the Schnee heiress still vehemently claimed that it was forced on her.

We knew better.

My conflict with JNPR led me to share my secret with the team as a whole. Ruby's conflict with our hierarchy – more specifically HRCN – put us back in our dorm room.

Conflict. Always conflict.

It was almost depressing.

But what came after the conflict made it all worth it. RWEBY always, always came out stronger for our fights, our arguments. Every conflict was a test and my team had passed every single one. It wasn't always easy… but we got it done. We were stronger for it.

The lights in the hallway flickered – something that happened often – and brought me back to the present. The plain accommodations were a large step down from the luxury that hierarchies lived with, but I didn't really mind. In fact, I found this more appealing. We didn't have any unknowns living with us. No one had access to our room but us.

It was safer.

High-pitched laughter, intermixed with Ruby's cackle, emanated from within the room. I was able to identify Weiss' laugh and Blake's as well – they must be back from the library.

Given how long the meeting with the Headmaster lasted… that wasn't too surprising.

The man didn't have much in the way of solid information to share with me though he did mention some 'scouts' that he currently had in the field. One was missing, but the other was still reporting in regularly. Even further, another one was sick and the last… well, he didn't want to speak about the last one. I didn't push him.

Ozpin expounded upon RWEBY's role in all of this too and generally gave me an idea of just what we were facing.

War.

This was a war. Vale's war. Remnant's war.

And the world didn't even know it yet.

He wanted RWEBY to be his information gatherers. He wanted us to go where his allies could not – renowned as they were.

It made me wonder just who he had under his banner but I contained myself. The less people that knew of their identities, the safer these anonymous people would be. Add to that the fact that their names didn't affect my team and it was easy to control my curiosity.

I had no need to know, after all.

Overall, it was an enlightening discussion. I finally felt like I had a handle on just what the White Fang represented. A term to finally label the conflict.

War.

Neo was the first prisoner taken in this war and she was currently being held by Vale's peacekeeper force. As for Mercury and Emerald – Ironwood, of all people, took them into custody on one of his many ships. I thought the Headmaster displeased with that but it could have also just been his cold coffee… the man was many times more difficult to read than Weiss and I struggled to read her effectively as it was.

Whatever. It wasn't my problem anymore – an admission that was incredibly relieving to me to admit.

I hadn't realized just how much pressure I myself had put on my shoulders, worrying over this conflict and RWEBY's role in it. About our future in Remnant…

The idea of working under Ozpin absolved me of many of those worries and I relished the lack of stress that came with it.

I relished it greatly.

It was like being able to breathe again. It was like waking after a long nightmare. Like-

Another bout of laughter sounded from behind the closed door.

It was like suddenly remembering what mattered. Friends and family.

I exhaled deeply and, with only a slight pause, retrieved my Scroll from my pocket. It was awkward to use it with one hand but I learned fast. Simple tasks like opening a door weren't beyond me, thankfully.

I could only hope that I wasn't walking into the middle of another meeting for their self-proclaimed 'Awesome Girls Club'.

Ruby's idea.

"So did he… you know," Yang was saying as I opened the door. "How-"

She cut herself off abruptly and the room went completely silent – never a good sign – when I stepped into the room, absentmindedly placing my Scroll back into my pocket. With a practiced ease, I ignored the uneasy silence I'd just created because I'd disturbed their girl talk and instead moved toward my bed.

My old bed. Still unmade. Still placed in a corner between a desk and a nightstand. Still very far away from the catastrophe waiting to happen that was the girls' beds.

I sat down-

"No, Enten, that's okay, just barge in during our meeting and pretend like we don't exist," Yang called from Blake's bed. The blonde had an unimpressed look on her face and, beside her, Blake looked incredibly relieved.

Apparently the cat faunus was the target of the evening. Maybe it had something to do with Sun Wukong and how he headed straight for the library after waking this morning.

"I'm sorry," I said. "Who are you? I can't quite place your-"

"Oh! He's got his jokes back! I'm pretty sure the last time I saw you even start to smile was like, eight weeks ago," the blonde returned wryly. "Now look at you – grinning like you're… _me_ or something."

I shrugged my good shoulder. "My meeting with Ozpin went well, long as it was…" Then, to Ruby: "Are you alright?"

She smiled. "Yes. I think this was a lesson that I needed to learn… some people can't be helped. Like that stupid-head Rod Seglare."

That was a pleasant surprise. I was hopeful outside when I heard her laughing alongside the rest of the team but still, part of me expected her to be moping around in her bed. That she was up and laughing and smiling spoke well of her. Of her maturity. Or her ability to lead this team.

"I agree. People twice your age have trouble learning lessons like that. They convince themselves that they're right and usually suffer for it. You're pretty remarkable, Ruby."

The girl's smile turned bashful. "Ahh, well… I mean- I know I'm pretty awesome," she cleared her throat. "_Anyway, _CFVY is still in trouble 'cause they have to put up with him so I want to think of a way to help them out and get them away from HRCN… Can you help me?"

"Me," I asked, my mind spinning. I was fairly certain that CFVY had been using Ruby – and us – from the get-go. Any desire to help them fled me when Coco Adel failed to stand up to Rod Seglare even while Ruby was bearing the brunt of his anger in her stead.

"Yeah," my leader chirped, folding her legs underneath her on Weiss' bed. The heiress herself was sitting quietly, her hands folded in her lap. "You're good at planning and stuff… As long as it's not in the middle of a fight… then you're pretty dumb- but in a good way! I don't mean- Just that…"

"I don't think I've been inadvertently insulted by you in a month," I laughed.

"I can help with that," Yang quipped, throwing an arm over Blake's shoulder. "Mr. _Brash_."

A scoff escaped me at that.

"He is anything but brash," Weiss observed, prompting the blonde across from her to grin.

"He said the _exact _same thing!"

That was a lie. I was certain that my wording was different.

But Yang always found ways to make people uncomfortable and I was not left disappointed.

"You two are _so _alike," she gushed. "And plus, the way you bicker half the time without words makes it seem like you're an old married couple!"

"Hardly," Weiss sneered. "_I _am not old."

"And here I thought you'd want to hear what the Headmaster had to say about the White Fang," I muttered. "Guess-"

"Enten," Blake demanded.

I swallowed, eying the girl. "…Guess-"

"_Enten."_

Slowly, a grin developed on my face. She really was obsessed with this. I could use it-

But no. No. No. I shouldn't. This was important to her, that much was clear in the way her eyes were riveted on me and she stopped trying to shrug off Yang's arm. It would be cruel to keep it from her, especially given how personal her attachment to the organization was.

Weiss too, for that matter. The heiress had fallen silent and was currently staring me down as well.

I sighed, my grin fading. Silently, I pulled one of the desk chairs over to the beds and eased myself down into it. It felt good to sit.

Long day. Longer weekend.

"Alright," I started amidst another sigh. This chair was _really _comfortable.

Blake not-so-subtly cleared her throat.

"Ruthless," I muttered, digging my Scroll out of my pocket again. I pulled up my map with a familiar ease and quickly manipulated the application into showing me a region northeast of Vale proper – behind the Forever Fall Forest.

"The Headmaster knows about as much as we do about the White Fang and Torchwick," I said, noting that Blake's shoulders slumped and Weiss' fists clenched. "But he does hear rumors that we don't. Rumors that need investigating. Sometimes in a… discrete manner."

"He wants us to be scouts," Weiss realized. Upon seeing me nod, she continued: "That makes sense. We can't do as much as a team of fully fledged huntresses and hunters can but at the same time, we _can _move about unnoticed far more easily than they can. With power comes reputation – I know that well enough from my family – and they are undoubtedly more powerful and experienced than we are."

"I don't like it," Yang groused. "Torchwick and Neo deserve to get beaten to a pulp for what they did to us. How are we gonna beat their faces in if we just do scout stuff?"

"The danger of finding the head of the beast comes with scouting," Weiss intoned. "One of my elder cousins told me that once – she works for Atlas as a scout. She said that she's ended up overwhelmed and nearly dead because of it due to bad information… being a scout is a dangerous job because you're alone. Alone and very, very far away from help."

She turned to me then, ignoring the silence she just created. "I trust the Headmaster has made certain we won't be put into situations like that."

If only.

I never even considered that point of view, given how relieved I was to have some _help _in guiding RWEBY through this struggle. The fact that we would be so close to enemy lines, so close to the White Fang or Torchwick or… _whoever _else they had on their side was not encouraging.

"Enten," Ruby asked slowly when I said nothing.

I shook my head. "Part of the risk."

Weiss crossed her legs, the suspended foot started to twitch. Across from her, Yang grunted.

"Well, I'm fine with that," the blonde said. "Just means we get to kick some butt while we get information."

"Part of the risk," I said again. "We scout. We get information… Didn't you want this, Weiss?"

She exhaled through her nose. "Yes but… I want to figure out what the White Fang is doing and _stop _them forever-"

Blake shifted and – for the first time in several minutes – took her eyes off of me and instead focused on the Schnee heiress. The white haired girl noticed easily.

She sighed. "I… look, Blake, I know we don't see eye-to-eye on this but I don't think I'll ever be alright with the White Fang. Not as they are now."

"There are good people in the White Fang. Misguided, but good."

"And how good can they be if they're stealing?"

Blake frowned. "Your company isn't perfect," she said, continuing quickly before Weiss could get a word in. "And neither is the White Fang. They see it as exacting revenge."

"That's… That's," Weiss grunted, frustrated. "There are good people in my company too! Not everyone hates the faunus, some people just want to live their lives."

"There are good people in the White Fang too. Not everyone hates SDC, some people just want to live their lives."

Silence reigned for several seconds when the cat faunus finished speaking. Ruby was frowning and Yang was clenching and unclenching her fists. They were frustrated, just like Weiss and Blake, but not because of the subject of the argument… they were frustrated because there _was _an argument.

Weiss sighed audibly and spent several seconds breathing deeply, the action drew my attention to her. It was almost like she was steeling herself for something. Preparing herself.

"Okay," she said at length, meeting Blake's eyes. "Okay. We _aren't _going to agree but… but we can't keep disagreeing either. So…"

She fell silent and licked her lips; the suspended leg started to twitch again.

"I've come to know you well over the last six months and… and I honestly, truly like you as a person and I enjoy your company and I enjoy your conversation," she said, the tone of her voice unknown to me. It was both soft and confident… it was genuine. "I respect your opinions and, even thought I might disagree with them, I… I hope we can put this behind us and move forward together as part of team RWEBY…"

A shocked silence that fell over us when Weiss started speaking continued after she was done. Ruby's mouth was shamelessly hanging open, just like her sister's. Blake's eyes were wide and her hands were twitching, probably because she didn't have a book to hold.

"_Aww_," Ruby cooed, grabbing Weiss in a bear hug. "That was _so, so, so _sweet!"

"Ruby," I said quietly, glancing at the lone faunus in the room. "Let them finish."

The girl's eyes widened and she immediately released a disgruntled-looking Weiss. "Oh! Sorry! I didn't mean to be a debbie downer!"

Not for the first time, I wondered if it was a good idea for me to explain idioms used back on Earth. She almost always got them wrong.

"Thank you," the black haired girl muttered quietly, creating the same stunned, yet hopeful, silence that Weiss had just moments before. Quickly, the faunus got up and pulled Weiss up into a hug, a gesture that the Schnee heiress returned immediately.

"Does this mean-"

"I don't do well with people," Blake continued, keeping hold of the white haired girl. "You know that. We all know that. I just… I can't do it. Too many years of keeping my head down and my lips shut. I wanted to make this right but I couldn't convince myself that I should try. I was afraid you would shoot me down. I was afraid you wouldn't feel any apology was necessary and I'd be left looking the fool again and we'd be in the exact same position… on opposite ends of an uneasy truce."

She paused for a moment and the bitter smile faded from her face.

"You're so strong, Weiss," Blake said, pulling away from the girl and holding her at arm's length. "You have so many of- so many people after your life and you bear it all on your shoulders so stoically. So much pressure as the heiress of Schnee Dust Company. So many expectations… but you never let it shake you.

"You're so strong," she said again, wondrously, as she sniffed. Her eyes were wetter than usual. "I'll be forever grateful to count you as a friend, regardless of our disagreements… So yes, let's move forward, as friends."

They hugged again and Ruby – who had been shaking with the effort it took to contain herself for the last thirty seconds – exploded.

"_Guys," _the girl trumpeted, throwing herself at them. She wrapped her arms around the both of them, as far as they could go, and hummed excitedly. "I don't even- that was _great_! That was… you two are _amazing!_"

I laughed quietly, just as pleased as I imagined Ruby was but not so… over-the-top in expressing it. Yang caught my eye and offered me a wide grin, a gesture that I returned.

My Scroll pinged then and, idly, I glanced down at it.

My grin vanished.

A message was waiting for me – text only – and the sender's name was 'Hagel Schnee'.

Weiss' father.

* * *

**A/N: **Happy weekend guys! We're closing in on Christmas so I'll be taking a break from writing. My plan moving forward is to release the next chapter in a month's time (so January 8)… hopefully that'll give me enough breathing room to get a little ahead on 'season 2' chapters.

So the White Fang conflict has reached a – temporary – end between Weiss and Blake. It took a while, but then it was a deep seeded argument. In the series, I feel Weiss' side of the story isn't given enough thought, she sort of just gets brushed aside even though her name earns her the ire of the faunus in the same way the faunus' race earns them the ire of some non-faunus. Neither can help it, they just have to live with it. Hopefully I've done that conflict justice.

**Eclipse: **I listened to Wolf in Sheep's Clothing and completely agree with you, though I like Warriors and Monster by Imagine Dragons a little better. And yes, I do believe Yang wouldn't have any problem with helping you beat down HRCN! Thanks for your thoughts!

**Desoldeben: **First off – thanks for the feedback. Balancing filler and plot is difficult, I don't want to skimp on either and hearing that you think I've got it right is incredibly reassuring. As for how I decide… I _try _(not sure I always succeed) to let the characters write the story themselves. If I feel an event is coming up that is important to a character, I'll write it. Generally the filler/fluff comes from those but I try to integrate it into the plot points too. Does that make sense? It's sort of difficult to describe. At any rate, thanks for the review!

**Oyshik: **The Schnee Semblance is kind of like that, making copies of them and what not. If someone had a Semblance that actually controlled them, though… they'd be incredibly valuable. That negates the Grimm as an enemy (depending upon the scale at which the Semblance could be used) and might just unbalance a story. It sounds quite overpowering to me, actually. Thanks for your review!

**Name-Change: **Penny is here, just hasn't made an appearance, a consequence of RWEBY's altered interaction with Torchwick in the docks. They never searched for Blake because she never ran away. Enten's presence meant Mercury and Emerald were also put in jeopardy within days of their arrival at Beacon and thus, they showed up at the robbery. But now Ironwood has snatched them up… Ironwood, who also happens to appear to have some measure of control over Penny. I wonder what Torchwick's call outside the warehouse on the night of the robbery meant… Curious… As for Gamle's decision to kick RWEBY out: emotions were high. Not gonna defend it, but I can sure see why he did it in the heat of the moment. Good luck getting them back, though, that hierarchy has been nothing but trouble for Ruby and co. As for Enten's tipping point: nice observation. I addressed that in this chapter, but yeah, he's been under self-imposed pressure for too long. Far too long. As for Enten vs. Jaune – maybe. I'm planning on delving more into Jaune's reaction during a potential apology scene, though. Thanks for your review!

**AP0084: **That… was an oversight on my part. I forgot to include Blake's reaction to possible White Fang casualties. My bad!

**Riero: **I don't mind the rant at all – you've got Enten pegged. A level head would have meant worlds of a difference during the HRCN meeting. Unfortunately Weiss and Blake came to a head just before it started and that's never good for neutrality. Emotions were already running high and then Rod Seglare dive bombed into the middle of it all and made it worse. I like your thoughts on Enten's Semblance, though I'm more of the opinion that it takes on his desire to survive at all costs. His Aura turned purple for a reason… it had a catalyst, one that hadn't been introduced before… I love trying to be mysterious, but no, I'm right there with you as far as Semblances taking on a certain aspect of their user. I'm not sure a true lightsaber would be possible in Remnant for the reasons you mentioned… Aura is defensive in nature and lightsabers are anything but. Enten's half way there, though, given he can shape his. No solid plans for it yet but, who knows, it might pop up as a 'oh that'd be cool' feature! Thanks for your review!

**Themetaduck: **I wanted Enten to be an anti-hero from the get-go. Not necessarily bad, not necessarily good. It all depends on the perspective. Thanks for your thoughts! It let me know I was on the right track!

**MrtheratedG: **Don't worry about being accurate/wrong. I worry about messing up past information from previous chapters all the time but eventually I realized there's too much of it to be perfect with. I'm going to make mistakes so don't worry about making them yourself – we're all human here, after all. As for songs, I have a plan for this. Enten mumbling the words to one that he remembers or something, maybe Weiss picks up one that she likes. We'll see… Thanks for your review!

**Guest-numero dos: **I should start calling Enten's paranoia his doomsday calendar. That sounds like something Yang would do. Thanks for your kind words and I will certainly endeavor to make Reiteration your number one story – I may not be the best writer out there but the plot is only just getting started…

**Themaninthemask: **Noted. Rod is just angry enough, just blindly hateful enough, to make that happen. But, unfortunately, I don't foresee him getting into any kind of conflict for several chapters… Eventually, though. Eventually. Thanks for your review!

**Nemrut: **I'll counter your point that Yang, Blake and Weiss wouldn't have as much of an issue with Enten's manipulations with their learned experience: what happened last time Enten manipulated a team? JNPR soured toward RWEBY and he very nearly died because he pushed Pyrrha too far. They might not have a problem with him manipulating people (to a point), on that we can agree, but the consequences might turn them off of _his _manipulations in specific. The HRCN meeting was largely a cluster and the fallout from that is far from over but, for now at least, RWEBY has something more important to focus on. My vacation was nice – it was a much needed break from life hah! Thanks for your review!

**Victory3114: **He can manipulate his aura to… influence another person's. I wouldn't say he can give his aura to other people though. The fact that they are removed from the hierarchy is definitely a good thing, on that we agree. I like your thoughts on the Aura Saber too – I was toying around with something for his off-hand, it'd have to keep his fingers free, though. The mounted pipe might be a start! Thanks for your thoughts!

**Tdychko: **Not weird at all. She's a deep character, one that I feel isn't given enough thought in the series. Thanks for your review!

Phailen out! Till next time.


	29. Chapter 29

_Two weeks later – Week 17_

The night was quiet. Peaceful. It was tranquil and silent with just enough background noise from the woodland animals around team RWEBY that I felt myself calm for the first time in several days. Were we not on a mission for the Headmaster, I might have been tempted to fall asleep here. The atmosphere about the forest made it easy to let my guard down.

That I felt more at ease alone with my team on a mission than I did at Beacon indicated nothing good about my mindset, of that I was aware. It suggested that I saw everyone around me as a potential enemy, as a threat to be evaluated.

It was a self-destructive mindset given that it was impossible to account for so many enemies but that did not dissuade me from thinking that way.

Like Weiss' fear of the faunus, Ruby's penchant for helping others, Yang's fierce loyalty to her friends above all else and Blake's distrust of humanity as a whole, my paranoid habits would not be easily ignored.

Knowing that, the very least I could do was value this calm while I had it… It was ironic that a forest brought it to me, given my history with Forever Fall Forest.

Vale's southern forest was nothing like its northern neighbor, though. I was far, _far _more expansive, for one. That fact was something I knew already because the textbooks loved to mention how large Vale's wood resources were but the reality of the sheer scope and size of it never really hit home until team RWEBY started doing recon work for the Headmaster.

The textbooks were fond of using words like massive, huge and large to describe the forest.

But none of those words did it justice; it was _incomprehensibly vast_.

The trees were as tall and as wide as the renowned Redwoods of California from Earth. The woodland animals that inhabited them were made to spend several minutes climbing to their tops. That alone was worth stopping to note because trees that large were rare on my first world, rarer still on Remnant.

But the _amount _of them was what made it jaw-dropping.

"You know, I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing this stuff," Yang muttered beside me. She was pressed against the ground just as I was, the better to hide our presence. "There's, like," she paused and starting counting with her pointer finger the trees that we could see from atop our cliff overlooking a portion of the forest, "a kajillion of them."

"That many," I asked wryly. There was green as far as the eye could see and that was impressive given our cliff was several hundred feet tall, tall enough to tower over even the massive trees.

"Give or take one hydro-bajillion, yeah," Yang quipped, a familiar grin growing on her face. "It's like it never stops… You might even say these trees are really… _branching _out."

The blonde promptly dissolved into a fit of giggles once she finished and I shook my head, exasperated but unable to keep from smiling.

"I got ninety-nine trees, but birch ain't one."

Yang snorted. "What? There are _way _more trees than that. At least a kajillion, remember?"

I shook my head again, grimacing now. "Ah… never mind. Earth reference."

"You are so corny," the blonde responded.

'_As if you're one to talk.'_

"Puns go like this," she said slowly. "What did the tree say to autumn? …_Leaf _me alone!"

"Yang please," Weiss sniffed from the girl's other side. I noted that there was still a displeased look on her face, no doubt the result of her having to lie down in the dirt. Given the girl wore white and was very much a dainty heiress in some respect, that was no surprise to me.

"I heard a traitor got arrested in Atlas for high _tree_-son," the blonde continued.

I snorted, grinning now and that was probably only encouragement for her, while Weiss sighed. From the heiress' other side, I heard Blake snort. Ruby, on my other side, was trying to stifle laughter.

And largely failing.

"Yew guys are so boring," Yang ranted. "Just _leaf _the puns to me."

"This is so horrible," I muttered, still grinning widely. My cheeks were starting to hurt. "Why is this even remotely funny?"

"I guess you could say she's _grown _on us," Weiss, without missing a beat, said whilst looking down her nose at us.

I broke down into laughter and Ruby joined me. Blake slapped a hand over her face.

"Weiss," Yang chirped. "Good one!"

"Yes, well, the heiress of a company must have some humorous remarks-"

"Ugh, you ruined it."

"My puns are _always_ ice cold."

Yang chortled even as Blake broke down and started laughing too.

"Guys," Ruby injected before snorting, finally giving up on searching the forest below with Crescent Rose's scope. "Guys! We need," she cleared her throat and shook her head. "We need to focus! We gotta create a distraction, remember? Headmaster Ozpin's counting on us!"

"Yeah," I said, reigning myself in and forcing back the amusement. We were on a mission, after all, and regardless of how light hearted I felt, I needed to remember that. "But that's not until midnight, it's not eve- oh shit."

"Uh-huh," Ruby chirped, stuffing her Scroll into her pocket, the one that was specifically made larger for her after Weiss got fed up with her whining about how small 'girl pockets' were. "11:57. _Come on_."

We rose at her urging and cautiously moved along the edge of the cliff. Eventually, as we rounded a rocky overlook, the first signs of our target came into view several hundred feet below, through the thick canopy of the forest trees.

It was a short, squat structure made of a sturdy-looking material; the exterior was plain white in color and reminded me terribly of Beacon's medical room. The building was shaped like a dome and nestled right up against the cliff face. Close by, there was another structure that reminded me of the grain silos from Earth, where farmers would store their crops. It possessed the same cylindrical shape and its base was lifted perhaps a dozen feet off the ground. The two buildings were connected by a pipe running between them.

"Weird looking things," Yang said of the metallic structures. "Wonder what the White Fang's doing out here…"

"Nothing good," Weiss scoffed, dismissive as she rubbed her upper arms.

"Duh, I meant more like specifics."

"Guys, we don't have time for this," Ruby hissed, scrambling down the edge of the cliff face, toward the spot we picked out earlier. Given the buildings were almost directly below us, we had to find a point that slanted down enough for us to effectively use Ultimatum.

Because if anything, Ultimatum could create a distraction.

A very _large _distraction.

"Come on. We only have two minutes," the girl whispered, now ten feet under the cliff's edge and nearing the small outcropping we found some three hours earlier.

Two minutes.

Two minutes until my shield would see its first field test. Two minutes until the calm, peaceful night would be destroyed by the power it was capable of generating. Two minutes until Ozpin would have his distraction, whatever the reason he needed it may be.

The man was close lipped about much of his plans – a necessity, no doubt, given Ruby's absentmindedness with conversation topics.

"Let's do this," I muttered as adrenaline started to run rampant through my veins. Quickly, I descended the rocky ground and landed heavily behind the girls as they settled themselves on the outcropping. Ultimatum shifted on my arm and, with a heavy groan of machinery, expanded itself into its massive kite shield form.

My left hand wasted no time in grasping one of the shells at my hip and promptly heaved it up and out of its harness. A grunt of exertion escaped me even as Ultimatum was brought to bear. With another heavy _clank_, the shield rotated itself to be loaded and I pushed the payload into its firing column without any further ceremony. It slid into position and one final _clang _echoed throughout the night as the payload was locked into place at the base of the shield.

The night's silence returned somewhat perturbed once the shield was done making a racket, only to be broken shortly thereafter by Yang.

"Okay," the blonde said, watching me as a grin developed on her face. Her fingers curled into fists. "Now I'm excited."

"No casualties."

"That can't be guaranteed," Weiss said, glancing in Blake's direction as the five of us reached our firing spot. I placed myself behind the girls.

"It can if we hit the pipe," Ruby returned, eying the structures through Crescent Rose's scope. "I betcha they _really _don't want it destroyed 'cause whatever's in there looks real important."

"That's a small target," I observed, aligning Ultimatum's point with my arm. It shifted slowly, burdened as it was, but eventually locked into place with another _clank _that seemed startlingly loud. We needed to fire soon. All it would take was just one person that happened to hear the shield's grinding and our mission here would be put into jeopardy.

My leader laughed quietly. "Maybe for _you_."

"Ohh," Yang taunted. "You just got _burned_."

"Stuff it blondie."

A roar, far louder and far closer than the other ones we'd been hearing all night – the forest, like every other one, was populated by Grimm in varying densities – sounded from beneath us. It was sudden. It was loud. It was _enraged _and _ferocious_ and… and it was strange. It did not sound like a normal Grimm's howl and the sound was unnerving enough that it made the hair on my arms stand on end.

It was altered. Different somehow. A Beowulf was the origin, to be certain, but… different. Dual-toned. _Fiercer_.

The roar ended but team RWEBY remained quiet all the same, now anxious and uncertain.

Suddenly, the night seemed a lot darker.

"Okay," Ruby breathed. "Okay… just, ignore the creepy howl and let's, uh… yeah, we have thirty seconds. Come on guys."

We stood stock still for several seconds, it wasn't until the younger girl pointedly cleared her throat that we jumped into action.

"You think they're messing with the Grimm," Yang whispered, her eyes wide, as she grasped her support bar and lowered her center of gravity alongside Blake. Their help in holding up Ultimatum was a relief. Heavy enough on its own, the shield weighed nearly one hundred pounds with the shell inside of it.

"That was a Beowulf," I muttered, widening my stance so that I, too, could get closer to the ground. We needed to aim below us and, though the part of the cliff we stood on was angled downward, we would still have to adjust our aim somewhat. "I think…"

"I don't want to know what it was," Weiss snapped as she took up her place near the front, opposite Ruby. "Let's just cause our distraction and get out of here. I haven't slept in over a _day _and this forest is _disgusting_."

"Sounds good to me," Ruby chirped, collapsing Crescent Rose.

"Shield's coming forward," I declared as Ultimatum moved itself as far up the firing rail as it could, until it hovered over Weiss' and Ruby's heads.

"Go time," the younger girl said, taking hold of her support bar and adjusting the angle of the shield so that the aiming receptacle was in front of her face. "Ten seconds."

We quieted and I bent my knees. I was the main source of resistance against the shield's backward momentum, I needed to be ready to absorb as much force as I could.

In front of me, Yang and Blake dug their heels into the ground and readied themselves to brace their shoulders against the support bars. The metal objects had been modified since our first test run, angled farther downward and possessing a wider end, each specially molded to fit the girls' shoulders.

"Five seconds," Ruby intoned, pushing the shield slightly upward. She had to account for the movement that would come when we braced ourselves.

"Four…" Another howl, the same dual-toned one as before, abruptly split the night air. Again, the hair on my arms stood on end.

"Three…" I saw Blake visibly shiver and Yang nudge her with an elbow.

"Two…" I froze and, alongside me, the girls did as well. No more movement until we shifted our weight against the immense force Ultimatum generated when it fired.

"One," the girl barked. As one, we moved forward. Our weight shifted and the shield tilted downward ever so slightly; the timing on the trigger must be _perfect_-

"_FIRE!"_

My pointer finger depressed the button and I ducked my head.

_**BOOM!**_

A new sound broke the silence of the night, but this time it was a roar of machinery. It was the shell howling in defiance as it was forced from its barrel. It was the air squealing as it was violently displaced by enough gunpowder to level a small home.

It was team RWEBY's unknown calling card.

It was louder, fiercer and far, _far _more intimidating than a single Grimm's howl could ever be, no matter how strange.

The projectile whistled through the air and, before Ultimatum had even fully settled against my shoulder, we heard a catastrophic _crack_. It was followed shortly by the tortured screams of twisted metal and the heavy clanging of broken machinery impacting the ground.

Ruby hit the mark.

The cylinder, the silo – it was all but obliterated. The shell impacted it near the point where the pipe connected to it and now the bottom half of the construct was just… _gone_. What used to be part of the silo was now strewn about the ground in bits and pieces of broken metal. Dust hemorrhaged freely from the cylinder, spilling out onto the ground like water over the precipice of a waterfall.

"I think that's enough of a distraction," Ruby said, clapping her hands together even as people started to exit the dome beneath us. They looked like ants from our vantage point.

"We have time to fire again," Weiss pointed out, watching the – presumably – White Fang members run toward the silo.

Blake, still rubbing her cat ears through the bow, shot the Schnee heiress a look behind the girl's back. "Ozpin told us to create a distraction. Didn't tell us to kill people."

The white haired girl sighed even as Yang whistled lowly, crouching over the edge of the outcropping and observing the devastation we wrought.

"We should probably get out of here," I muttered even as the very same howl pierced the night again… this time, it was accompanied by screams. Human screams. Faunus screams. "They're doing something down there… and…" I shook my head. "I think it's time for us to go."

"If we figure out what that howling is, we'll have more to take back to the Headmaster," Weiss argued.

"He told us to make a distraction," Blake snapped again, her voice strained. I knew Ultimatum was hard on her ears but unfortunately, it was as quiet as it was ever going to get. "We did that."

Another howl. The same one. Bestial and… _unnatural_, even for a Grimm. And this time a… _creature_ accompanied it.

A massive form – big, black and… _glowing_ – darted away from the dome. Moving quickly into the forest and soon disappearing into the trees.

"Ah, fart face," Ruby exclaimed, bringing her eye away from Crescent Rose's scope. "It was too fast… I couldn't see it."

"It was running along the cliff face," I pointed out. "Hard to see it from up here, awkward angle."

We were silent for a brief moment. Chewing over what we'd just seen. Contemplating it.

"You think…" Yang ventured quietly. "You think it's smart enough to know that?"

"No," Weiss said immediately, her voice cracking.

"That wasn't a Grimm," I muttered even as the girl cleared her throat. Ultimatum returned to its normal position on my arm and then transformed back into a large gauntlet. Below us, people continued to swarm around the silo, largely only able to watch as the dust contained therein spilled out onto the ground. "I don't know what that was. But it wasn't a Grimm."

Playing around with dust and the Grimm.

Just what were they thinking?

"Let's go," Ruby decided, her voice quiet. "There's nothing else for us to do here. We're leaving."

The girl started walking and, as one, her team followed.

* * *

_Two days later – Week 17, Beacon's dueling hall_

'_Eik Verbrand,' _I thought, watching EMRD's leader pass confidently stroll through the massive, looming dueling hall doors ahead of team RWEBY. _'Fights with a whip. Important wins: Ren, Ye'lo and Dove. Semblance: Pre-cognition. Neutralizes agile opponents. Counters: over-powering force. Or, in Ruby's case, enough speed to beat his reflexes augmented by Semblance.'_

I rolled my shoulder, more out of habit than anything. This week would be my first back in action after the… snafu during my fight with Pyrrha and I was more than ready to show my classmates that my team was still the undisputed best in our class. Team RWEBY would be nothing less than the greatest.

'_Dune Noir,' _I observed as I too, entered the dueling hall. The massive room stretched out before me. _'Leader of DMND. Relies heavily upon Semblance: the ability to soften his consistency, allowing him to absorb blows. Weaknesses: over reliance on Semblance has left his martial skills lacking. Counters: close combat. Elemental attacks.'_

Last week hadn't been kind to team RWEBY; I forfeited my match with Ye'lo by default, Blake lost to Legion E and Ruby fell to Nora Valkyrie. Weiss and Yang brought home victories but seeing _the _team to beat win less than half their matches gave our critics – of which there were many – something to talk about. Suddenly, we seemed beatable again.

Fools.

I only just kept myself from scoffing aloud. One bad week would not break us, especially when we were still over a point ahead of JYDE and JNPR, the teams tied for second. Especially when two of the top five fighters in class belonged to RWEBY. One of which was actually tied for first.

'_Ognis Ty. Leader of team OPUL. No noteworthy victories despite being 8-3. Lost against every half decent opponent he faced. Can heat objects through touch. Uses brass knuckles to fight that double as throwing stars. Threat: minimal.'_

Yang was excited and had been ever since I beat the Invincible Girl – my victory catapulted the blonde into a tie at the top of the class with Pyrrha and Ye'lo, each poised nicely with a _10-1 _record. Meanwhile, Weiss and Dove, from CRDL, were tied for fourth at _9-2_.

But our classmates didn't seem to care about that. They evidently felt that one bad week was going to spell the beginning of the end for RWEBY – a sentiment that spread like wildfire to our foreign visitors.

Admittedly, last week was not RWEBY's best and it certainly wasn't the first impression I wanted to make upon the students from other academies. They entered the dueling class expecting to see my team dominate the competition but left it feeling overly confident that RWEBY was nothing but talk. I'd even gotten a fair share of dismissive glances because I was weak enough to get injured – never mind the fact that I got that way by beating Pyrrha Nikos.

_The _Pyrrha Nikos.

There was something to be said about being underestimated but at this point I doubted anyone would underestimate team RWEBY enough for it to be a liability… No, better to intimidate than to appear weak.

"So _I _said," Ruby ranted, drawing me back into the present as her hands flailed about her head. "No, you can't have any because they're _mine_ but she didn't listen! It was like she was dead set on _my _strawberries… there were plenty of other ones around the room. Somewhere. Not-near-_me_-somewhere."

She huffed and let her hands fall back to her side amidst Weiss' muffled sigh. The younger girl either didn't hear her partner or simply didn't care, though, for she spun in a circle and eyed myself, Yang and Blake in turn. The five of us stopped abruptly, just inside the tall dueling hall doors, and students from all four academies began weaving around us to pass by.

"Right," Ruby asked while Weiss looked on, her eyes traversing over the passing students' faces, daring them to meet her gaze.

I very much doubted any would. The Schnee heiress knew how to hold herself high. She knew how to manipulate the unconscious mind with tiny gestures. A little tilt of the chin, a straightening of her shoulders and spine.

No, she might as well have been a wolf among sheep.

Amidst these new strangers, she was in her element.

"_Right," _Ruby nodded when none of us answer. "I know there were more around places. I know it! Beacon has strawberries _all over!_"

The three of us remained silent, well aware of just how sensitive a topic this was and less than willing to potentially earn Ruby's ire because of it. The girl appeared satisfied with that, though, and she turned to march into the dueling hall a short few seconds later, Weiss just a half step behind her.

"Ruby," the white haired girl began softly, clearing her throat and doing her very best to keep from sounding patronizing. The look in her eyes gave her away. "She was only saying that to r-"

"I _knew _she knew there were more," the younger girl exclaimed, spinning around in the middle of Weiss' sentence and throwing her arms in the air. "You saw it too right?! She coulda taken strawberries from _any _plate but she picked _mine!_"

Yang made a strangled sound in the back of her throat next to me and I shared a quick, amused glance with her. Ruby was serious about her strawberries… worryingly so. Ye'lo had only asked to have a few from her plate this morning at breakfast because the girl had horded every single bit of 'delicious red goodness' within reach.

"So the Schnee Family Ball is tomorrow," I inserted happily once Weiss started to wilt under Ruby's unblinking stare. The younger girl was _serious _about her strawberries. I knew that firsthand. "Betcha-"

"_She'll _be there, won't she? She always mentions how she's at parties with Weiss and stuff. I bet she takes strawberries there too."

I shut my mouth and shot Weiss a sympathetic look – the white haired girl was not amused – when team RWEBY's leader honed in on her again.

"If we ever need Ruby to hate someone," Blake breathed quietly, watching the Schnee heiress admirably weather the storm that was Ruby's outrage from her position just behind Yang and myself. "We just need to implicate them in a strawberry shortage."

"Or a cookie shortage," Yang muttered. "Or a salsa shortage. Or… You know, she really has _a lot _of… peculiarities with food."

"That's a big word for you, dunderhead," I observed.

"Can it Lame-ten."

"She knows plenty of big words," Blake inserted, scowling at me as she shifted her book from hand to hand. "Like bang."

"That's not bi- hey!"

I laughed and the cat faunus joined me, leaving Yang with a frown on her face.

"You guys suck," she pouted. "My jokes are amazing _and_ I know plenty of big words."

"Just messing with you," I conceded, bumping my shoulder against hers.

She scoffed but grinned widely a moment later. Never let it be said that Yang Xiao Long could be kept down for long.

"I am _so _ready for the ball tomorrow. I'm gonna high-heel the snobbishness _right out_ of those party guests!" The girl laughed. "Why do you think old man Schnee invited us anyway?"

"Weiss."

"Well yeah," Yang said, glancing at our white haired teammate. She was several steps ahead of us still, speaking with Ruby. "But I mean, like, why _all _of us? You know?"

That was something that I wondered about myself ever since receiving the invitation some two weeks ago. The best I could come up with was that the man either wanted to meet his daughter's team or he wanted to use RWEBY's growing popularity to his advantage.

Or... maybe he was just being polite.

Regardless, we would find out tomorrow. I was content with the fact that it wasn't a request for that meeting I canceled. I knew Weiss didn't want to see her father one-on-one and it was only hesitantly that she agreed to go the ball at Ruby and Yang's urging.

A meeting with her father would certainly cause her to abstain from the ball and team RWEBY could use a little relaxation, given the missions we'd been going on for Ozpin as of late. They were tiring and very demanding, not to mention time sensitive. Often team RWEBY was kept up late into the night only to return to Beacon for class the next day on a few paltry hours of sleep.

It was exhausting, to be certain, but it wasn't all bad. The missions satisfied Blake and Weiss enough that they stopped spending every waking second in the library, hunting for information on the White Fang. _That _was irritating because they refused to see how much their fanaticism was hurting not only themselves but the team – their friends – as well. Thankfully, after our first mission, they, like myself, were willing to take marching orders from Headmaster Ozpin where Torchwick and his allies were concerned.

In addition to keeping RWEBY's W and RWEBY's B well-rested, the missions also took a load off of my shoulders. I no longer needed to plot and plan our fight against the White Fang - Ozpin did it for me and he was probably better at it too.

The man seemed to know everything, after all. Or at the very least, he seemed capable of learning more than we were – it made sense to let him do the heavy lifting as far as intelligence was concerned. Team RWEBY had plenty to worry about as it was.

"Well," Yang chirped, crossing her arms and tilting her head back. I noticed more than one of our classmates suddenly find her chest incredibly interesting. Some of the foreign students too. "I guess we'll find out tomorrow."

"Find what out tomorrow," a voice from behind us said – a familiar voice.

"Ah nothing much cutie," Yang sang, spinning on her heels to face Jayd. "We're just going to a ball – wanna come with me?"

The boy's eyes widened and his cheeks flushed. Immediately, his eyes fell to his shoes. Beside him, Ye'lo Malamig rolled her eyes.

"One of these days, he's going to get used to that and surprise you," she warned, craning her neck to stare over our shoulders. "…Do you think she's still…?"

"Still angry," Blake confirmed with a short nod.

Ye'lo groaned melodramatically, her shoulders sagged and arms were thrown into the air. Behind her, Legion D and Legion E both stepped back, matching surprised looks on their faces.

"How was I supposed to know that strawberries were holy-"

"_You!"_

Ruby suddenly pushed by Yang and I, apparently drawn over by the commotion Ye'lo was making. Weiss followed after the girl and came to a stop next to me even as our leader started laying into the 'strawberry thief'.

"It's like I have to deal with double the obnoxious behavior now," she complained, a scowl on her face as she watched Ruby rant to JYDE's Y. "They could be twins."

Yang cackled and rather abruptly threw herself over Weiss, staggering the girl. "They're just happy people!"

"Ugh," the heiress grunted, promptly growing even more frustrated because of the slip. "Get _off _you savage!"

Yang grunted and wrapped her arms around the girl's waist. "Unh, Yang savage. Yang see! Yang pick up!"

Weiss was promptly lifted into the air with a squeal, her hands flying to her skirt. "Put me down. _Put me down!_"

"Yang no understand big words. Yang go sit. Weiss sit too!"

With that, the blonde stomped off with an angry Schnee heiress in tow, easily parting the crowd in front of her. Blake followed after them, but not before throwing a half surprised, half amused look my way. It was easily mirrored on my own face.

Weiss was going to be _mad_.

I watched the better part of my team disappear deeper into the expansive hall for several seconds before I felt hands suddenly grasp at my arm. My first instinct was to react rather violently but given I was in the middle of the dueling hall and the dark brown hair I saw on the edge of my vision, I gathered that it was only Ye'lo.

'_No punching, then.'_

"Enten," the girl breathed, placing herself behind me. "She's _crazy_. I thought it would be funny, just a joke!"

"You don't joke about strawberries," Ruby spat, emphatic, from my other side. She was craning her neck over my shoulder, trying to see Ye'lo. Unfortunately for my leader, her efforts were complicated because whenever the younger girl would try to move around me, Ye'lo would match her. It made me feel like I was being used – because I certainly was – rather quickly.

"Have you apologized yet," I grunted, turning to look at Ye'lo as best I could.

"Apolo- for what?"

"For my _strawberries!"_

Ye'lo squeaked and recoiled farther behind me. "I'm sorry! I didn't know! I'm sorry I tried to take your strawberries so pleasedontkillme!"

In front of me, Ruby froze, her eyes still narrowed. The girl's fists were clenched and she was breathing heavily.

"Ruby," I ventured slowly, gently. "She apologized… She won't do it again - right Ye'lo?"

"Right! Absolutely right!"

Slowly, my leader nodded. "Alright. Just don't do it again and we can go back to being battle buddies."

Ye'lo peeked out from behind me and froze, like if she didn't move then neither would Ruby. After a brief moment, however, she came out fully with a hesitant smile on her face. Absentmindedly, the girl straightened her pale blue blouse and dark jeans.

"Okay," she said, offering Ruby her hand. "Friends?"

My leader grinned widely and instead grabbed the Malamig girl in a bear hug. "Battle buddies! Come _on_! I need to tell you about what Yang did last night."

"Ah- okay! Sure," the brown haired girl responded, allowing herself to be dragged away. She tossed a helpless look over her shoulder at her team and, within seconds, disappeared into the crowd of students already milling about the dueling hall. It was a big attraction for the foreign teams, seeing their competition fight. Ever since they started arriving, Beacon's dueling hall was normally filled to the brim when a class was taking place.

"Tch," Legion D scoffed. "Crazy girl."

"Hmm," Legion E agreed. "How do you deal with her?"

"She means well," I said, turning to face them. "But it took lots of time and effort… and also, help from Yang."

"Must be horrible to have her as a leader," D observed, a scowl on his lips.

"No," I started, only just keeping my expression from matching his. "She may childish but I wouldn't have picked anyone else to lead our team. Her combat mind is second to none and her weaponsmithing skills are leaps and bounds better than even some so-called masters. It comes almost intuitively to her; watching her work with weaponry is like watching a masterpiece being painted."

"Tch. What about the attitude?"

I swallowed, the better to hold back my anger. It was just like the confrontation with HRCN, when Ruby was being threatened. This was no where near as extreme but… still, it angered me to hear someone speak so poorly of my leader when they knew so very little about her.

But that was Legion D in a nutshell. I learned very quickly that he was something of an infinite source of pessimism – I thought it spawned from the fact that he was constantly playing catch-up with his older twin. Estate – Legion E – was dangerous with her spear and generally more skilled than him. Thus, Legion D lived to point out others' faults, not because he was mean-spirited by nature, but because he was an insecure teenager.

Irritating, but given he was the only negative to come out of JYDE joining RWEBY for training thus far, I could not complain overly much.

"Give her a chance," I said at length, sighing. "You'll find her quite possibly the most genuine person you've ever met."

The boy grunted and, without any further ceremony, walked into the dueling hall, leaving me with Jayd and Legion E.

"Sorry about him," Jayd, ever self-conscious, offered. "He…"

I waved away the apology. "Don't worry about it. My team went through something similar when we first got grouped up, had to get to know each other and everything… it wasn't necessarily a smooth transition. He just needs time."

"Hmm," Legion E hummed, adjusting the yellow battle-dress she wore with a dark-skinned hand. Together with the breastplate, spaulders and gauntlets, it made her look the picture of an ancient Roman gladiator. Legion D wore similar attire, though his was more masculine in nature. "Dunno 'bout that. He's always been negative. Always sees the worst in people. Mom doesn't like it – won't tell him, but she hates it."

I shrugged. "He'll grow out of it."

The girl hummed again and, with a flick of her dark hair, followed after her younger twin. Jayd walked after her so, left with no one else around me, I trailed behind them.

Together, the three of us quickly navigated through the mess of students to find our teams. They were sitting together, something that was occurring more often now.

Yang and Weiss were sitting side-by-side and the heiress was clearly doing her best to ignore the blonde. In front of them, Blake was reading silently even as Ruby talked Ye'lo's ear off next to her. Legion D found his seat on Yang's other side; the boy was currently messing with his Scroll, shoulders hunched and doing his damnedest to ignore everyone around him.

"You look frustrated," I said once I placed myself behind Yang. Indeed, the blonde was sitting in the center of Blake, Weiss and Legion D, none of whom were normally interested in conversation, even less so in the crowded dueling hall.

"Finally," she gasped, hopping over her seat and planting herself in the one on my right. "Words!"

"Don't worry, you'll be fine." I smiled wryly. Over the top dramatics were Yang's calling card.

"No I won't," she said, emphatic. "I need more. Now!"

I shook my head, used to the girl's antics by now, and turned back to the class at large. People were still filing into the hall and the proportion of familiar faces grew smaller with every new spectator. Never had I seen the hall this full. Granted, it might have just been the fact that I was actually fighting this time around and thus paying more attention, but I could have sworn there weren't as many foreigners in last week's class.

"Enten," Yang said, staring at the side of my face.

But that made sense – rumor had it that the first round of the Festival Tournament was to be a teams-only round. Why not come and see Beacon's students fight just as they would in the ring when the tournament began in three weeks' time?

A perfect chance to stomp out rumors of RWEBY's faltering momentum.

"EntenEntenEntenEnten."

I spotted Sun approaching along with his team. The blond introduced them to team RWEBY last week when he found us playing a board game in the academy library. Neptune Vailias was a tall boy with blue hair and high cheekbones. He wore a form fitting jacket and pants, colored a combination of maroon and black. Yellow googles rested on his forehead. I found the boy amiable enough and I was quite certain Weiss found him far _more _than just amiable... he did have that 'cool guy' look to him.

Scarlet David was a shorter boy with long crimson hair that was shaved short on the sides of his head. He wore mostly straight white but for the cape that was draped over his left shoulder - that was just as crimson as his hair.

Finally, Sage Ayana was a boy with dark skin and dark green hair. He was quiet when he was introduced in the library but eventually I found that he spoke in a very measured tone. Like he always spent ample time dwelling on his thoughts before he shared them. Next to Sun's awkward overtures toward Blake and Neptune's advances toward... _everyone_, Sage was a breath of fresh air.

He also seemed to enjoy showing off his abdominal muscles, just as his leader did, but where Sun wore an unbuttoned, short sleeved shirt, Sage wore an open jacket that reached nearly down to his ankles. Together, the four of them were team SSSN. Scarlet's appearance put me off at first-

"Enten," Yang all but screamed in my ear, shaking my arm as she did so. "Enten. Enten. Enten. Enten."

I slapped my hand over my face and turned to the girl, just a little more than exasperated.

"Yes. Yang… What. Do. You. Need?"

"Words," the girl chirped, a pleased grin on her face. "Words. I need words."

"Words," I repeated, watching as the girl's eye twitched. "I think you need help."

"No," she stated, her grin looking a little strained now. "Nope! I need words!"

Her eyes twitched again and this time I recognized the gesture for what it was – she was glancing over her left shoulder. She was trying to tell me something. Slowly, I looked-

"What the _fuck_," I hissed, only just managing to keep from yelling. It took all of my self-control to keep myself seated and not do… something, _anything_, about the fact that _Mercury Black _and _Emerald Sustrai _were nonchalantly sitting not even twenty feet from us. My eyes widened further when the green haired girl herself looked my way and I quickly redirected my eyesight back to Yang.

"Play it off," I bit out – more for my benefit than the blonde's – as I forced my jaw to relax because what the _fuck?! _I shook my head, trying desperately to center myself and remain calm and _not give anything away _but I knew in the back of my mind that it was far, far too late to do that. Seeing the duo here unsettled me enough to even potentially throw off my duels for the day.

They were supposed to be on one of Ironwood's ships. They were supposed to be locked up or otherwise contained because Mercury had openly acknowledged that they were associated with Torchwick and 'The Queen'. They were supposed to be Neo's cellmates.

'_Neo!'_

What if the woman had escaped too? So soon after team RWEBY managed to capture her. Before Ozpin and Ironwood managed to get anything out of her. Too soon. Too-

But no. No, that couldn't be right. Mercury and Emerald would not be here if they escaped. Having to _escape _implied that they were locked up in the first place. To show up at Beacon ran directly counter to _staying _escaped, surely they knew that. No, they wouldn't be here if they escaped… so… they were released?

But again, being released implied that they were locked up at some point and I couldn't see Ironwood having any reason to let them go... Could he not justify throwing them in a cell? Maybe he couldn't connect them- no! I was never called in to testify or share what Mercury said or anything! Ironwood – and Ozpin – would have contacted me if they wanted to pin Mercury, and by association Emerald, down with helping Torchwick and 'The Queen'. But they never did… and that implied…

That implied that Mercury and Emerald were never locked up or otherwise contained in the first place.

"What the fuck," I muttered once more even as Yang grunted. Ozpin told us they were _on _one of Ironwood's ships. Never did he saw they were being held or locked up or contained...

"I know right," the blonde said, the tone of her voice neutral. "They got some nerve showing up here after the kidnapping. Why isn't Goodwitch doing anything?"

"Because she can't," I said absentmindedly, my mind spinning. This changed everything.

Because if Mercury and Emerald were never locked up and I was never called in to try and prove their guilt, that meant that they _weren't _on The Queen's side after all. That meant that Mercury lied to me when he told me of his connection to Roman Torchwick.

That meant Ozpin hadn't been one hundred percent open with team RWEBY.

"Can't," Yang demanded, her voice still hushed. I noted that Blake's ears were twitching inside their bow even as she listened to a one-sided conversation Sun was having with her. Never let it be said the boy didn't try. "What do you mean can't? She's the professor here – nobody's gonna stop her."

"I mean she can't because Mercury and Emerald were never on Torchwick's side in the first place," I hissed. "Think about it – they're sitting out in the open at Beacon. That suggests that they have no reason to fear Vale's authority and _that_-"

"That means they fooled us," Yang muttered. "But why lie to us? Why not just tell us they weren't with…"

"Maybe because they don't want to tell us who they're really with," I pondered, shrugging, finally managing to rein myself in and regain some semblance of control.

Mercury and Emerald were back at Beacon. That was… okay? Sort of. Mercury and the person for whom he worked were presumably still interested in team RWEBY but… at least he wasn't with Torchwick. He wasn't with The Queen. Ironwood and Ozpin never would have let him go if he was.

Any further conversation was abruptly ended when Professor Goodwitch began calling the dueling hall's occupants to attention. Blake shot Yang and I a look before she turned forward, nudging Sun with her elbow to get the boy to stop talking and pay attention as well.

We would need to talk. All of us. And Ozpin too, for good measure. But that could be done later... I had a dueling class to dominate alongside my team. I needed to focus on the present and worry about the future later.

"Students," Goodwitch's voice echoed throughout the hall. "Students. Your attention please. Students!"

Slowly, the mass of bodies shuffling about trying to find seats settled into said seats. They quieted in pockets, rather than all at once, but eventually the lack of movement brought with it a respectable silence. It was not completely quiet – I could hear whispered conversations occurring all around me – but it was enough to hear the blonde professor.

Given the sheer number of people in the hall, it would probably never be _completely _quiet anyway.

"Thank you," the woman continued, clearing her throat. "The Vale Festival has officially begun and so, again, I would like to welcome all of our foreign visitors to Beacon Academy. We are honored to host you for the duration of this celebration."

She paused briefly, just enough to let her statement sink in, before continuing:

"Now, the tournament will begin in three weeks and until that time comes, you are welcome to observe Beacon's dueling class. I outlined the rules last week but, for those just joining us now, please refrain from taunting, jeering or otherwise acting out negatively while you are in this hall. This is a learning environment – there is a time and place for grandstanding and this is not it. The dueling participants are not restricted in the same way, of course…

"You may also be asked to leave if you are disturbing the class – if this occurs, please represent your nation proudly and exit the hall without any further issue. I will resort to force if it becomes necessary. For _your _sake, I hope it does not."

She paused once more, just enough to transition the subject. Yang shifted in her seat next to me, crossing her legs at the knee. I front of us, Sun sent a sideways glance at Blake that the girl either ignored or did not see while Ruby leaned forward, he elbows on her knees.

"Now, Beacon students, welcome to your seventh team training day. This week, in lieu of our normal duels, you will be participating in a team building exercise with your other first year classmates."

Immediately, muttering sprung up among the students.

"Other classmates, what's that supposed to mean," Yang muttered next to me, leaning forward in the same manner as her sister. I glanced her way and, in the corner of my eye, managed to catch sight of Emerald's hair.

It was a very distinctive shade of green. Almost lime in color.

"I will choose one member from each team, totaling eight in all," Goodwitch continued, heavily punctuating each word spoken as was her norm. "These eight students will act as team captains for this dueling class; these team captains will choose and lead a team from the remaining pool of first year students. These new teams will then compete against each other."

"Huh," Yang grunted, surprised. "Sounds fun!"

"Now," Goodwitch enunciated, ignoring the low din that was reverberating throughout the dueling hall. "We are short one student this week, thus our number is an even thirty-two. There will be four first round matches, the next round will feature the four winners of the first round and the last round will pit our two best teams against each other. Lastly, the team captains may not choose any members from their original team and they may only select one member from each other team. No more… If there are no questions, I will now announce the eight team captains."

Again, she paused. This time it was longer and she glanced about the room, waiting for a student to speak up. None did, however, in fact the room was nearly dead silent now. The switch up in activities for the day appeared to have captured the attention of the entire student population within the dueling hall, mine included.

It was an interesting concept, pitting teams of students unfamiliar with each other against other, equally mismatched, teams. It was probably a good way to build cohesion within the class as a whole but it did little to nothing for our normal team cohesion, something that was certainly going to be important in the Vale Festival tournament.

So much for RWEBY making a statement. Oh well – there was always next week.

"Very well," the woman continued. "From team CRDL: Russel Thrush. From DMND: Marrone Birch. From EMRD: Eik Verbrand."

She stopped speaking briefly, glancing up at the students to make certain that the names she'd called were heard correctly. Indeed, all three students were making their way down to the stage in utter and complete silence.

None of them were particularly impressive. Eik Verbrand was EMRD's leader and he had a decent record, as did Marrone Birch of DMND. Of course, she was the _only _one with a decent record from her team… they were currently at the bottom of the class rankings and EMRD was only just ahead of them. Eik was in a similar situation: he too had a good record but the rest of his team was subpar. Given he was _leader _of EMRD, though, the fact that the team as a whole was unimpressive did not speak highly of his leadership abilities.

No, I was not impressed with him. At least Birch could hide behind the fact that she was not leader of her abysmal team. However, that did not excuse her from trying to bully Ruby with her leader - Dune - so many weeks ago.

She did not impress me either.

Lastly, there was Russel Thrush from CRDL – the boy was fragile and only decent with his daggers. His record – _4-7 _– accurately reflected his position in the class as far as dueling strength was concerned. Perhaps he would make something of himself with the chance to lead a team, though.

In the end, only time would tell.

"Good," the blonde professor intoned once the three students joined her on stage. "Now, from JNPR: Nora Valkyrie. From JYDE: Legione D'Acciaio. From OPUL: Ognis Ty."

Again, she paused, allowing the next three students to make their way to the stage.

"Good luck, man," Jayd called as Legion D, a grim look on his face, got to his feet and started down toward Goodwitch.

"Yeah! Kick some butt," Ye'lo shouted. "…Just not mine!"

The boy grunted and waved once over his shoulder in response. Next to me, Yang scoffed.

"Of _course _she would pause right before _our _team. I'm gonna make such an _awesome _team. We're all gonna be super strong and-" she started to phantom box with the air in front of her, "-we're all gonna kick some major-"

"From team RWEBY: Enten Melkweg. From team SAFR: Fuoco Pilum."

"Sorry Yang," I muttered, a grin on my face.

"Woo Enten," Ruby cheered, throwing her arms up in the air. "Do us proud! Except not too proud! I mean- just… Woo Enten!"

"Yeah. Woo Enten," Yang parroted, monotone and very clearly unhappy. The girl wore her heart on her sleeve. "Wooo-aaaah Enten just got knocked out by Yang's right fist of fury-oo Enten!"

I scoffed and turned away from her only to catch Weiss drawing a line across her throat with her finger and Blake pretending to choke.

Oh, they were all going down.

_Hard._

I made my way down to the stage quickly, descending normally via the stairs for once. The larger audience was intimidating and unusual, given I was used to fighting in front of less than half the current number of spectators, but it affected me for only a moment.

I had better things to do than be intimidated, after all, like come up with a winning combination of fighters. Kids that had Semblances and abilities that mixed well. We wouldn't know how to fight alongside one another so I would have to value quick-win strategies first. Semblances that played to each other's' strengths. Martial skills that complimented each other well.

"Now," Goodwitch continued, drawing me from my thoughts, after Pilum and I reached the stage, "We will begin the selection process with the captain who possesses the best record in class…"

At her words, the scoreboard sprung to life and quickly sorted itself based upon the eight students' records. I was tied for fourth with Nora. Eik Verbrand, Marrone Birch and Ognis Ty all possessed eight wins to my seven.

_Ognis Ty (OPUL): 8-3_

_Eik Verbrand (EMRD): 8-3_

_Marrone Birch (DMND): 8-3_

_Enten Melkweg (RWEBY): 7-4_

_Nora Valkyrie (JNPR): 7-4_

_Fuoco Pilum (SAFR): 5-6_

_Russel Thrush (CRDL): 4-7_

_Legione D'Acciaio (JYDE): 3-8_

"Ognis Ty," the woman intoned. "Your team has more points than both EMRD and DMND. You will choose first."

The redheaded boy hesitated for only a moment: "Pyrrha Nikos!"

"Didn't see that one coming," I snarked to Legion D.

"Tch," the boy scoffed, a smirk on his face. "Kiss ass just wants to look good. Betcha he woulda picked you if you weren't down here."

"Me? Nah. I don't have tits."

"What," the boy grunted, surprised, and craned his neck around me just in time to see Ognis' eyes dart down to the Nikos girl's torso. He laughed quietly even as Eik Verbrand of EMRD stepped forward. "Tch. Perv. He looks at my sister like that and I'll kick his ass."

"Yang Xiao Long," EMRD's leader called.

"Betcha Yel'll get picked next," Legion D muttered, watching the blonde vault over the edge of the stands and onto the dueling stage. "Damnit. All the strong fighters'll be gone by the time they get to me."

I choose not to acknowledge the boy's last comment. His record – _3-8_ – was a sore point for him and his attitude would, without a doubt, sour whenever it was brought up.

So fragile, the teenage ego… Legion D had a long way to go before he could stand on Yang or Weiss' level. The boy's temper closely matched the stereotypes associated with Roman gladiators: volatile. It was easy to get him riled up because he did it himself. Whenever he missed a step or lost a chance at landing a hit he would shoot himself in the foot by dwelling on it.

I wasn't quite certain how to help him yet.

I wasn't quite certain I should bother.

"Ye'lo Malamig," Marrone Birch called, drawing me back to the situation at hand. The quiet dueling hall. The students lined up next to me.

My strategy.

It would be unexpected and probably make no sense at all to everyone in the hall, my choice. My team would find it surprising and probably worry that I was falling back into my ruthless mindset again, a state that Yang lovingly dubbed 'Renten'. They had nothing to fear - I knew manipulating my classmates was something they deemed unacceptable.

"Mr. Melkweg's team has a higher ranking than Ms. Valkyrie's," Goodwitch stated, nodding to me.

I stepped forward.

It was time I started mending ties with JNPR.

"Jaune Arc!"

Utter silence, something I expected, swept over the Beacon students in the crowd, it quieted the mumbled conversations that were going on before my declaration and drew almost every pair of eyes toward me. Most all of them were incredulous, my team's were a mixture of confused and wary.

After all, why would I pick a student with one win that was known best for his clumsy demeanor and bumbling way of fighting?

But they didn't see. My fellow classmates were blind Jaune's potential - both as a fighter and as a bridge to getting my team back in JNPR's good graces. They only saw his ineptitude. His clumsiness. They were short sighted and ignorant.

But I was not.

I watched. I saw. I _observed_.

He was being trained by Pyrrha Nikos and was clearly improving because of it; his last two opponents were simply too good, too well trained for him to deal with. Were I to judge him honestly, I would place him among the five or six win students, now.

Good, but there was room for improvement. Room for _me_ to help.

Somewhere in the crowd, I heard Cardin cackle. The boy's laughter brought me back to the situation at hand and I noted that Jaune had yet to move.

"_Jaune Arc," _I repeated, eying the wide-eyed boy.

"Uh, right," he stammered, jumping to his feet and nearly unbalancing himself as he did so – it was only Ren's quick thinking that stopped him from tumbling down the bleacher-esque seating in front of him. Once stable again, the blond thanked his quiet teammate and ran over toward the stairs.

"Big mistake," Cardin howled. "You're gonna-"

"Mr. Winchester," Goodwitch snapped. "_Kindly _keep your opinion to yourself. Did I not _just _finish warning the class about jeers?"

The boy scowled and returned to his seat but his expression shifted into a grin when Jaune stumbled down the last few stairs as he neared the stage. CRDL's leader, apparently mollified, laughed once more and sat down, finally quieting just as Nora Valkyrie stepped forward and my first pick reached me.

He was wary - I saw it in the furrow of his brow. In the downturn of his lips. In the tenseness of his muscles. He thought I had some kind of ulterior motive for choosing him.

He was right.

"Uhh… so," the boy muttered, his eyes darting everywhere but my face.

I studied him, silent, for a moment longer. He was clearly uncomfortable, clearly wary, but the nervousness I once knew to associate with him was gone. He was not scared or uncertain, just on guard.

Pyrrha had done well.

"Good luck," I said, nodding as I clapped my hand down on Legion D's shoulder. The boy nodded back, distracted now that his turn was approaching, and I promptly walked some distance behind my fellow captains. I heard Jaune's footsteps behind me after a short moment's hesitation.

Once I felt I was far enough away, I spun around and – ignoring Pyrrha as she glared holes into the side of my head and Nora's concerned glances toward Jaune – started speaking:

"You did well against Eik last week. He was a bad match up. Whips usually are for people who fight like us."

"Uhh, thanks," the blond said, his eyes narrowed. "So should I be fearing for my life-"

"No, that isn't necessary. You never needed to fear for your life – I would have stopped Cardin if he got too vicious."

"Thanks," he said dryly, scoffing. "But you didn't feel any need to stop him when he was making my life a living nightmare for the first few months of the semester? Great."

I shrugged. "I look after my team first. No hard feelings."

The boy shook his head even as Ognis Ty stepped forward to choose his second student.

"You don't get to just write off what you did to me," he muttered, leaning forward. He was angry, now. Bold. Confident. "To my _team_. You put us through so much _shit _Enten! So much-"

"You put yourself through that Jaune. _You _applied to Beacon with-"

"Yeah but-"

"But nothing! You," I said, shrugging off my annoyance. I knew I was to blame for Cardin's _continued _bullying of the boy, but I was not, by any means, responsible for the bully's actions in the first place. "Hold on."

He grunted and crossed his arms, turning away from me even as my turn came about again. I quickly paced back up to the line of students, all of whom were eyeing me with a large variety of emotion playing about their faces, and rapidly searched the crowd to see who was left.

"Legion E," I called shortly and turned on my heel. It was a stroke of luck that she was still available – she was an integral part of my strategy, after all. Without her Semblance, my plan would fall to pieces.

Legion E could create a mist, a gas of sorts. It hung about her like a thick miasma as she fought and made it difficult to predict her movements and see her attacks, given it was anything but translucent. I was hopeful first that I would be able to control it with _my _Semblance and second, that it was combustible.

There were several students left capable of creating fire, after all.

"Mr. Melkweg," Goodwitch intoned amidst the confused mutterings of the audience. I stopped in my tracks, just behind the line of my fellow captains. All of RWEBY had been picked already and most of them were throwing amused looks my way, now. "Please address your fellow classmates by their names."

My brow furrowed. "Leg- _Oh_. Legione Estate."

The girl, who was already half way down to the stage, threw me a faux salute and quickened her pace. Her dark hair fluttered about her face and I watched as she brushed it away from her eyes, an annoyed frown present upon her lips now.

"If you get annoyed by it, why not tie it back," I asked, once she reached me.

She hummed, running one dusky colored hand through the curly strands. "Can't. Too unruly"

I grunted, but did not respond verbally. My feet returned me to my place among the rest of my fellow captains. Legion E took up a position at my right shoulder while Jaune lingered around my left. The boy was still sulking, or maybe he was mad. I wasn't certain.

He was right to be wary of me, to expect an ulterior motive. But he was wrong in thinking that my intentions were damaging to him. It was true that I wanted to use him to rekindle the bonds between our two teams but nothing more than that. It would please the girls to call JNPR friends again and they were, without a doubt, a strong team to have at one's back. If Jaune got a little stronger in the process of rekindling that friendship then I doubted he would complain.

"Didn't expect that," E commented, drawing me back into the present. Legion D had just chosen Cardin as his pick. The bully's record was a respectable _8-3_ but most of his wins were against low-ranked opponents. He lost to both Yang and myself… badly. Together with his attitude that fact made him quite off-putting.

"Dacc hates his guts," the girl continued, eyeing her brother where he stood, farther down the line of students. There was perhaps five to ten feet between each forming team.

"He's not the only one," Jaune muttered, glancing at Winchester as he made his way over to Legion D and Ruby, the boy's other choice.

"He's a fool," I observed. "Not Legion D… well, he's not doing himself any favors here either. But no, Cardin is a fool. Cocky. A bad choice."

"Hmm. Ruby looks like she just swallowed a lemon," Legion E said, amused.

"She hates him more than I do," I intoned. "Can't stand to see anyone suffer, it's one of her finest qualities. Cardin makes people suffer. Almost every day."

Jaune grumbled but held his tongue. That was a disappointment – I hoped that by giving him such a large opening, he would express some kind of surprise that Ruby would allow me to manipulate Cardin if she truly wished to help people. I could have espoused my leader's kindness and played myself up as the bad guy… put her in a better light in the boy's eyes.

Oh well.

"Not much left, hmm?"

"Plenty left," I argued, glancing at the dark-skinned girl. The yellow dress and metallic armor complimented her appearance well. Perhaps that was done to win an advantage over her male opponents? Or, more likely, it was simply done out of a desire to look good. Most of my classmates did not think in a way similar to my, admittedly… _severe_, mindset. Aesthetics were important to them. "Plenty of choices left."

"Yeah," she asked, her eyebrows arched. "Who're you gonna pick?"

I shook my head, watching as Ognis made his third and final choice: Regen Wasser of SAFR.

"That's a secret," I teased. "If I tell you, they might get snatched up!"

The girl scoffed. "You're _next. _I highly doubt Marrone will choose- never mind, she just went. So: who is it?"

I turned back to the class at large, scanning the remaining students only for a brief moment before I made my decision: "Alita Infuocato!"

"Her," Legion E bit out, her mouth falling open. "Enten – you realize that, between the four of us, your team has a total of… _sixteen_ wins? You have seven, I have six, Alita has _two _and…" She shook her head. "What do you think-"

"Wins don't mean much, not in the long run," I said, watching as Infuocato made her way down to me. "I may only have seven, but I still beat Pyrrha."

"You got lucky," Jaune said immediately, suddenly. His eyes were narrowed and focused intensely on my own. "Pyrrha's the best fighter in the class. Easy."

I blinked slowly – unable to recall ever seeing the blond so passionate about… _anything_ before. Perhaps being in close proximity to me brought out his bolder side? Whenever I passed him in the hall, he ignored me. That might have just been his way of dealing with anger.

But now that he was being forced to confront that anger…

"Probably," I agreed, nodding. "But I still won. Regius, from EMRD? He has one win to his name and a point from the bye week but he still beat Legion D. Ruby lost to Regen but then she turned around and beat Dove. Seven wins loses to four but wins against nine."

"Okay," E said slowly. "So they aren't _always _correct but… our sixteen wins to Ognis' team's twenty-nine. That's…"

"Those are just odds we'll overcome," I said confidently as Alita finally reached us. SAFR's A was a short girl that possessed brilliant red hair and a freckled nose. Her signature attack was her Semblance – fire breath. Other than that, she had very little going for her. I hypothesized that, before Beacon, her Semblance was enough to get her through her training at Signal with a respectable grade. Now, though, she was being forced to play catch up lest she fall behind her classmates, almost all of whom had skillsets in addition to their Semblances that they could bring to their duels.

That said, she was still a decent fighter - her luck with opponents had just been horrible. Names like Pyrrha, Ye'lo and even Ognis were too good at what they did to be bested by a girl that relied on her Semblance too much and her dagger far too little. Still, Alita gave them a good fight.

She was a hidden talent. Like Jaune. One that could only be found through intense observation.

Luckily, that was something I was good at.

"Alright," I said, glancing about the room one last time. The students were grouped up in their new teams, now, all except DMND's N; the boy was injured in his last duel and had to sit out this week, conveniently bringing my class's number down to thirty-two even.

Weiss met my eyes as my gaze traveled over her team. The girl offered me a smile and I returned the gesture. The look on her face was replaced by a grimace before I could turn away, though, and she started toward me at a clipped pace, the frown growing with every step she took.

My brow furrowed in confusion even as Legion E hummed behind me. I noticed that most of the students were staring in my direction, now. Yang even started following Weiss-

"Excuse me," came Pyrrha Nikos' voice from just behind me. "Can we _talk _for a moment?"

Oh. That explained things.

I turned around slowly, nonchalantly, and took in the situation before me.

Pyrrha, Nora and Ren all stood before me in varying states of annoyance. There were a lot of furrowed brows and crossed arms between the three of them. None of them were outwardly aggressive but… they certainly weren't happy with me.

Fair enough. I forced them to acknowledge me by choosing Jaune – they could no longer pretend that I did not exist.

"Sure," I said lightly, sticking my hands – or rather, _hand_ – in my pockets and eying them expectedly. I heard Weiss' heels click to a stop just behind me and Yang's boots followed shortly there-after.

JNPR didn't seem put off by the girls' presence but that didn't surprise me. I highly doubted Yang was doing anything threatening and, given Weiss' social mind, _knew _that the Schnee heiress would not make any outwardly hostile gestures. The two of them were probably only there to protect me if I was attacked anyway.

Just like the situation with Rod Seglare.

Thankfully, none of the members of JNPR struck me as hateful fools.

"In private," Pyrrha continued after several seconds of silence passed. The dueling hall was just as quiet as it was when I called out Jaune's name as my first choice – apparently I was pretty interesting.

Or rather, the kid who beat Pyrrha was interesting. Not Enten Melkweg.

Suddenly, I thought I had an idea of just how Weiss Schnee felt in her day-to-day life.

"Probably not," I vocalized amid a grimace, careful to keep my tone light even as the redhead bristled. "We gotta be around to see who fights first, after all."

The girl's eyes widened and a smile bloomed on her face. "Of course," she said after a moment, laughing lightly. "Maybe later, then?"

"Yup. Now if you'll excuse me… I need to plan with my team."

She nodded, leaving me behind with a disconcerted feeling that I only just managed to hide behind a neutral expression. Never had I seen the girl so… happy. So laid back since it came to light that I was the one helping Cardin bully Jaune. Granted, the last significant exchange I had with her was the conversation a single day after I beat her in a very public duel wherein she lost her temper and tried to kill me…

Maybe she'd cooled off?

I grunted, deciding to forget about it for the time being, and turned to shoo away Weiss and Yang.

"Thank you servants," I demurred. "But your highness is fine now. You may return to your mundane lives."

"As if," Yang retorted, nonplussed even as Weiss rolled her eyes. "I just came over to tell you I'm gonna kick your butt. In public. _Again_."

"Do try, peasant."

The blonde laughed and slammed her fists together. "It's _on!"_

With that, she turned and launched herself back toward her team, headed by Eik Verbrand.

I turned then to Weiss because the white haired girl hadn't left yet. She was only looking at me.

"Should I be concerned," she asked, her voice quiet. The girl's pale eyes flickered over my shoulder, at the spot where I knew Jaune, Legion E and Alita were standing.

"No," I muttered, grasping the girl in a hug. The next sentence I said into her hair: "I think it's long past time that I mended our ties with JNPR."

The girl stilled in my arms but recovered quickly enough, squeezing me once before releasing me and strutting back over to her team. Before she turned away fully, though, she glanced meaningfully toward Legion D's team. The team Ruby was on.

I could read the question in her eyes easily enough: Is this for Ruby?

_'All of you,' _I mouthed and the girl turned around fully, pleased.

* * *

**A/N: **SURPRISE MUTHA TRUCKAS! Betcha didn't expect this did you?!

Happy Christmahannukwanzadan! Think that about covers everyone, yeah? Anyway, take a new chapter of Reiteration – early – as my gift to you this holiday season. I'll see you all two weeks from now in 2016!

So Happy New Year as well!

**Jack Hunter**: That's a difficult question (if you don't try to save as many people as you can, what kind of person are you?). I'd go with adjectives like selfish and self-serving first and foremost. But I'd also stick realistic and intelligent in there as well. You can't always save everyone, after all. Neither Enten or Ruby have really gotten into a situation where they _have _to choose yet so they've never really clashed overly much on this idea… maybe in the future? Who knows? Thanks for the review!

**Eclipse-Sol: **Have no fear – the worst Papa Schnee has planned for his daughter might be sore heels after a night of dancing! Or at least as far as team RWEBY knows! Thanks for the review!

**Victory3114**: Glad you liked the Ruby developments. She's one of the most fun characters to write given how her viewpoints clash with Enten's. Room for growth on both sides, there. Your aura disruption rods sort of remind me of Pein (Pain?) from Naruto – interesting concept… one I hadn't thought about before. It certainly might be possible, though Enten would need to figure out how to make his aura disruptive enough to mess with his opponent's. Not sure how he'd do that, but it's definitely something to explore. Thanks for your thoughts – always enjoy reading them!

**Tdychko: **That they did! Enten canceled it, specifically, as part of an apology to Weiss! Thanks for the review!

**Lord rage quit: **Cold and calculating – though there _is _emotion hidden under there. But emotion often interferes with logical thought… whether or not that's a good thing is up for debate. Thanks for the review!

**5 Coloured Walker: **Not quite 'sacrifice everyone but your own team' anymore. I think the rest of RWEBY has gotten it through Enten's head that that is not acceptable… at all. But mending bonds with JNPR to make RWEBY stronger? Fair game. Thanks for your review!

**98kazer: **Surprise mutha trucka! Two weeks in advance! Now you don't need to find more RWEBY fanfiction for about a half hour! Hah, thanks for your review and happy holidays to you as well!

**Name-Change**: Don't think I don't notice you changing your name on me every chapter. I'm onto you… the changes are small, but I see 'em. Thanks for catching the Haven/Atlas snafu, I did indeed mistype that, probably thinking about Sun while I was writing it or something, who knows! As for Pyrrha's supporters… well, they're probably noteworthy people who might just happen to attend balls held by certain well-to-do investors _cough _Schnee _cough_. But they totally don't matter (at Beacon) and definitely won't do anything to Enten (at Beacon). So no worries! Lastly, your feeling was right! Mercury and Emerald 'broke' out of jail pretty quickly, unfortunately for Neo, she's still stuck in a cell. Must be quiet there. Very quiet. Thanks for your review! _Tacked this part on for your second review: _That's certainly a possibility and I believe her name was Amber… I think. Though if Enten's Aura can energize and manipulate… it can certainly _take _too. Something to think about!

**Riero: **I agree with you almost completely. The only point I'd dispute is that Enten's world view _is _being influenced by his team. He now knows how violently disagreeable they find his take-no-prisoners actions and won't go quite as far because of it. But who's to say he won't push his boundaries a little bit… Thanks for your review!

**Akio Blade: **I'm glad my story elicits so much emotion from you – hopefully positive in nature. I put a lot of thought into how Enten works and thinks and, though he might seem to be on a self-destructive path at times, he's got his team there to pull him back from the edge. It wouldn't be character development without the development! Thanks for your review!

**EveBlaze: **No plan for the memory loss, I'm afraid. Enten's made his choices and the consequences will have to be dealt with, no easy ways out. That said, mending the bonds with JNPR isn't off the table just yet… stay tuned and thanks for your review!

**Oyshik: **Enten isn't aware of how he died on Earth but he was 24 when it happened. As for bridging the gaps between him and JNPR – on it! Hah, thanks for the review!

**Guest numero dos: **No pressure – every review is appreciated regardless of its contents. (Even flames – it's another number, after all, though I haven't received one yet… and I probably just jinxed myself). I felt that Enten had too much time in the spotlight too; he's the POV for the story but… yeah, the team wasn't getting enough real estate. Hopefully this chapter is a turn in the right direction! No worries, no reaper has assumed control and the collectors remain dead. Also – happy early birthday! I didn't quite post it six days earlier, I went with two weeks… hope that counts! Thanks for the review – I always enjoy reading them! _For your second review on Fall: _Let's just say, the end objective of the story is getting 'Cinder' to 'Fall'! Hah! I'm a genius! Also – long live the Melkweg System.

**Lucifer Daemon: **3

**Eclipse: **I did see Fall. Yang will not have that done to her. That's all I can say…

**Lizy2000: **Thanks for your review – how 'bout an update just in time for Christmas?

**Zam138: **Not quite stolen, else it would have turned purple when he took Jaune's too… no, it's all his Aura! Thanks for the review!

**MrtheratedG: **I see what you did there… as far as the 'I must be the enemy of the world' thing, you don't have to worry about that. I never quite understood that line of thought. If anything, Enten would _reaaaaally _want to destroy the enemy of the world because it was threatening his team.

Till next time readers!

Phailen out.


	30. Chapter 30

**There are spoilers (although somewhat minor) for episode 7 of RWBY season 3 in this chapter.**

* * *

_Week 17, Beacon's Dueling Hall_

The crowded dueling hall at Beacon Academy buzzed with the chatter of hundreds of students as the stage itself was cleared of debris from the first of many matches it would see. Professor Goodwitch was working her magic – quite literally, as far as I could tell – to reassemble the battered floor and remove whatever she could not repair. It was interesting to me to watch, once upon a time, because it reminded me so much of my own Semblance. Of my own abilities to manipulate Aura. But that was months ago, back when I knew far less about Aura than I did now.

The blonde professor used her riding crop to channel her power, power that appeared to be a form of telekinesis – the ability to move and manipulate objects with the mind.

Except in this case, it was being done with Aura, rather than solely with the mind.

My Semblance differed in that first from her power in that I did not need a medium to use it and, second, I did not have such fine-tuned control over it. I could do little more than create blasts and waves with my power whereas Goodwitch was able to pick up objects half way across the stage and dexterously place them back into their proper place in the dueling stage floor.

In all fairness, I could do something similar. My Semblance was capable of controlling smaller objects, like pens and pencils, though only if they were a few inches away from my hands. Perhaps it would be possible for me, one day, to attain the level of skill that Goodwitch displayed – I did not know.

Aura – and Semblances – were still very much a mystery to me, after all. Despite the time I put into understanding them better, despite the oddities I'd encountered with my own powers and the knowledge I gained from studying them, I still knew very, _very _little.

The ability to channel through metal otherwise incapable of handling Aura. The ability to manipulate the Aura of other huntresses and hunters. I recently found out that I could actually _take _Aura too, if I had enough time to solidify mine in another person's body… It seemed as though I discovered something new with every passing week.

"Enten," a voice to my left asked softly, uncertainly.

I jumped, startled, because I hadn't expected to be approached. The temporary teams were arrayed at the base of the stands, some distance from the dueling stage, while I was isolated near the far wall. The corner of the room.

Emerald Sustrai smiled when I looked at her, placing her arms behind her back and straightening her spine.

I wasn't sure the dark-skinned girl knew it, but the position drew attention to her breasts, which, quite frankly, were emphasized enough already. She wore an intricate looking white, sleeveless top that ended well above her midriff and left her chest bare – underneath it, there was an olive colored… brassiere, I suppose, that kept her decent but even that left little to the imagination, given it stopped a little more than half way up her breasts.

I knew Weiss thought the girl was improper and Ruby – ever understanding – believed the way Emerald dressed wasn't her fault. That it had something to do with her past or some kind of mental trauma.

Personally, I wasn't sure why either of them cared. Emerald may not be the most conservatively dressed girl at Beacon, but she certainly wasn't the most risqué.

The white pants she wore, covered by brown chaps, stretched down to her calves. Strappy-looking sandals with a heel on them, some lopsided belts around her waist, green loincloths on the backs of her hands and an armband made of three metal rings completed her ensemble.

No, if Weiss was concerned about propriety then she had plenty of other students to focus her attentions upon.

"I was worried I got your name wrong," the girl admited, a half smile on her face. One of her hands came up to brush her shoulder-length hair out of her eyes. "It's unique enough that I've never heard anything like it before – what's it mean?"

"Heat," I said slowly, somewhat uncertainly. Given the last time I saw her was when she was beaten to within an inch of her life and… less than amiable because of it, I was likely seeing her true personality for the first time. "Blazing heat."

The girl hummed. "Blazing heat," she parroted. "I like it. But… why aren't you dressed in all reds?"

"Why aren't you dressed in all greens?"

"Fair enough," she grinned. "Alright – I'll answer your question if you answer mine. Deal?"

I accepted with a shrug of my shoulders. I saw no harm in explaining my odd name. It would touch on the adoption issue and the deaths of my first parents, but my circumstances weren't overly uncommon on Remnant.

The Grimm saw to that in spades.

"I _do _wear green," she claimed, flashing the cloth on the back of her right hand and gesturing to her top with her left. "But I'd look like a complete eyesore if I wore _all _green. Plus, my hair is green. That counts for something, right?"

She reached over her shoulder and grabbed one of the two longer locks of mint-green hair that she kept well maintained – if Yang was to be believed.

I was inclined to trust her judgement; hair was kind of a big deal to the blonde.

Another shrug answered her. It was an idly asked question anyway, meant to get a feel for her personality. For her thought processes. Had she said something along the lines of 'browns and whites are harder to spot when you want to hide in the cityscape' I might've been concerned. She just cared about her appearance, though, like so many other teenagers.

Unlike so many other teenagers, she was involved with Torchwick and his buddies in some way.

"I suppose it counts," I vocalized, pausing briefly to rub at my eyes before I continued. "Enten is the name I got from my blood family – the one I lost when I was three or four… I don't know why they gave me that name. They were killed too early in my life for me to learn."

A lie. I knew exactly why I was named Enten but explaining away how a three year-old learned that he was named 'blazing heat' because of verbal tales passed down through his family since the age before the Grimm was not something I could do.

My mother – my _first _mother – called me her fireball.

I used to wear red.

My original family name, too, was something I had saved away on my Scroll. No one knew it but me and I intended to make sure it stayed that way – as far as I was concerned, that name died with my blood parents.

"Are you alright," Emerald asked, leaning forward. Her face was slack, her eyes slightly wider than normal. Concern.

She had large eyes.

"Yeah, just lost in memories," I muttered.

"From when you were three," the girl asked, an incredulous lilt to her voice.

"Faces. Scenes. Rooms. Things like that," I expanded, frowning because of the slip. Of course three year olds wouldn't be able to remember much of anything.

"Huh – you must have a stellar memory. Better than mine, at any rate," the girl said, a light bout of laughter punctuating her words. I put a grin on my face to share in her mirth. "I lost my parents too, but I was seven when it happened. My- I don't remember much of anything from back then. They just dropped me off at school one day and… never returned."

The green haired girl dropped her gaze to the floor, chewing on her lip.

'_Where's Ruby when you need her?'_

"Do you feel guilty," I ventured slowly, recalling my experiences the Forever Fall Forest-

_-useless, weak, powerless. Can't do any-_

"Huh," she grunted, meeting my eyes. "No! No… I was only seven. I don't even know what happened to them. I just…" She licked her lips and furrowed her brow.

"You just want some closure," I guessed. Ruby and Yang were the same way and I knew the two of them well enough to know how they felt about losing their mothers inside and out. "You want to know if they're _really _gone except you're terrified of what you might find. What if they're still alive? Why didn't they come back? Why did they leave you behind? …Finding answers both intrigues you and scares you at the same time."

Her mouth was slightly open now and her arms had fallen, limp, to her sides.

"I- Yeah. Yeah… that's… that's oversimplifying it but in a nut-shell…" She shook her head. "You know, I can see how you managed to unsettle Mercury so much, now. That idiot won't go anywhere near you anymore."

I grunted, unsure of how I should respond. Speaking of Mercury and the conversation I had with him would certainly lead to the boy's admission that he was linked to Torchwick. Granted, I knew now that he was lying to me, but Beacon's very public dueling hall was not the place for such a discussion, nonetheless.

Emerald apparently came to the same conclusion because she continued, grinning again, a moment later.

"So what's up with the rest of your name? Beacon says it's… Ruim Melkweg?"

"Mom says it means 'vast galaxy'," I said. "Don't know where she got it. A time before the shattering, maybe. Way back when the moon was whole – if the stories are to be believed."

"Fairy tales," the girl scoffed, crossing her arms and turning to look out over the dueling stage. Goodwitch was almost done reassembling the stage. "I don't put much stock in them. A whole moon, four women with superpowers, it all seems too whimsical."

"Too perfect," I agreed. "A whole moon is nicer than a broken one. Four women who can do anything and only use it for good is unrealistic. Bed time stories – things that make kids forget about the Grimm and everything else Remnant has to deal with."

"Yeah," the green haired girl nodded. "It's like they're all cookie-cutter stories made from the exact same mold. Stereotypical and so sweet it makes your teeth ache." She scoffed. "That's the problem with this world. We like to hide behind our huntresses and hunters and pretend everything will be alright. Like the Grimm don't just get more and more powerful as they age."

"Like the entire world _isn't _out to get us when, in fact, it is."

"Yeah! I mean look at the White Fang and all the small time gangs that emulate them! You add the Grimm to that and Remnant is already in dire straits but nobody will _do _anything about it. It's like we're all just content to ignore our problems and hope somebody will fix them before everyone ends up dead."

I turned my head to observe the girl and found her glaring at the dueling stage through narrowed eyes. Her arms were crossed under her bust and the fingers wrapped around her upper arms were white-knuckled with pressure.

"This is something you feel strongly about," I ventured, somewhat unnecessarily. The girl scoffed and I continued: "We face a lot of problems. Too many for one nation or one military to solve. Cooperation between all four nations would be necessary to eradicate the Grimm and that… that is very unlikely. Atlas is already at odds with the other three nations and apparently Mistral and Vale aren't exactly best friends either."

"Never mind the governments," Emerald stated. "Never mind the politicians and the rulers that just want to keep their power at the people's expense. _We _need to do something – the huntresses and hunters of Remnant. _We _have the power. _We _can fight. _We _need to unite. If Atlas, Vale, Mistral and Vacuo want to follow: so be it. Otherwise, forget them."

"Politicizing the hunt-"

"I'm not politicizing _anything_. I'm removing the politics and the bureaucracy from the people who can actually do the fighting."

"A global fighting force, focused solely on destroying the Grimm," I realized. "Sounds almost too good to be true."

The idea had merit. A global, organized force made up of every single huntress and hunter on the planet would be able to move and fight in ways that the four split factions could not. With that kind of oversight, they might just be able to focus their firepower where it was most needed, instead of where the highest priority targets were located.

Atlas did it shamelessly – using their huntresses and hunters in the state military – and earned the ire of the other three nations for it. Those other nations were hypocritical because I was willing to bet that they did the exact same thing, just more subtly. A sudden increase in Grimm activity near a noble's mansion might be taken care of much faster than a Grimm attack on a small farming community.

I had no proof of it happening, of course. The Council of Three would claim that the huntresses and hunters remained neutral until they were blue in the face… but they were human too. Human beings with desires. With vices. With emotion.

Human beings were anything but impartial – I was a perfect example of that myself. I put my team and my loved ones first just like a politician might put his or her benefactors first. Finding those selfless few – like Ruby – was a rare thing.

"A global fighting force sounds too good to be true," I repeated, a small smile on my face. "Almost like four women with super powers."

Emerald scoffed but did not speak further. The girl was still staring at the dueling stage even as the second match - Eik Verbrand's team against Nora Valkyrie's – took the stage. Personally, I felt the former had this match in the bag. Not only did he manage to get Jayd in his corner, but he got Yang too. Eik himself was no slouch either and given that Nora appeared to have made her picks based upon how well their outfits matched, I felt rather secure in predicting the Verbrand boy's win.

"So what did you think of the first match," I said aloud, mostly because I wanted to change the subject of conversation. There was always the chance that her insight would teach me something new about the winner's team too. It was almost always worth asking for one's thoughts.

"Pyrrha Nikos is just as good as the news tabloids say she is, even if she lost to you. I personally think it was a fluke. But maybe I'm just buying into the hype – she _is _the Invincible Girl, after all."

"Mercury sparred with her last week," I noted. "Gave up without much of a fight."

The girl held her tongue for several seconds, long enough that I turned to find her with a furrowed brow and a small scowl on her lips. I noted Goodwitch starting the second match of the day.

"I think… I think we _both _know why he did that," she muttered amid the renewed sounds of combat.

"He found himself unable to get around her Semblance," I agreed. "Either he _really _didn't want to take off his boots, decided he didn't want to showcase his abilities or… or he has a little more metal in his legs than he lets on."

She went quiet again and, when I looked at her she had the same expression on her face as she did before. Nothing, then. I could not garner any hint that I was right or wrong from her.

"But, the most likely conclusion is that he just didn't want to give away his secrets," I continued, sighing. My theory would remain just that: a theory.

"Not all of us can throw around telekinetic blasts," the girl scoffed. "We common folk have to rely on our minds and bodies to win our matches. Stuff that needs hiding to be good… No magical super powers here!"

I laughed. "It's hardly a super power and it's certainly not magical. Frankly, I'm surprised you haven't figured out I throw my Aura around yet – Ruby certainly spreads it around enough and I'm pretty sure that's public information in Beacon's data stores."

"Yeah," Emerald agreed. "I actually only heard that you helped Ruby with her Semblance – something about 'beating her Aura into submission', I think?"

A grimace pulled at my lips before I could contain myself – that was information that I did not want Ruby to spread around, something that I thought I told her. Telling people that I could do things with my Aura other than tossing it around in bludgeoning projectiles would draw unwanted attention to me.

You weren't supposed to be able to influence another person's Aura, after all. Just like it was supposed to be impossible to channel through the metal of which Ultimatum was made.

"Ah," I stalled. "I suppose it might have seemed like that to her."

"So you _can _manipulate other people's Aura," the girl exclaimed, turning to face me.

"Not… exactly," I started, trying to come up with a suitable lie. It was never my strong point, however, and my mind drew a blank.

"Ah… it takes me a long time to do," I said instead, exhaling in annoyance through my nostrils. Damage control it was, then. "Not usable in combat. And their Aura messes with my control after the fact-"

"You can _take _Aura from people too?!"

'_Shit.'_

"No. There's just extra residue from the process- look, I don't want to give away all my secrets, either. It's not something I can do in combat and it probably won't ever come to that point. Nothing for you to worry yourself over."

She grinned and, with a shrug of her shoulders, turned back to the stage. Yang and Jayd were busying themselves with taking down Nora – the last member of the opposing team standing.

Verbrand's team would win the match.

"Fair enough," Emerald said. "I got quite a bit out of you – being able to _take _someone's Aura is a pretty big advantage and I'm _preeetty _sure you're exaggerating when you say you can't use it in combat…"

It wasn't that much of an exaggeration, in all honesty. It _did _take me nearly ten seconds of focus to even differentiate between my Aura and another person's. All I had to go on was an almost instinctive feeling of _something _being there – like when someone stood close behind you. Add to that the fact that I had to find a distinction between _my _something and another person's…

There was a lot of trial and error. A lot of guesswork.

"You'd be surprised."

"Well, I won't tell anyone," she promised. "I think I can see that it means a lot to you."

A grunt escaped me but I didn't feel any need to vocalize further. There was little doubt in my mind that she was going to-

"Alright then, how 'bout this – Mercury's legs _are _made of metal."

Surprised, I looked over at the girl. She was grinning again – something she did a lot of, I realized – and doing the spine-straightening thing too.

'_No way she doesn't know what that's doing.'_

"All's fair," she chirped, spinning on her heel. The green haired girl then started sauntering back toward the stands. "Now you know I'm serious. We both got a secret, neither of us will share them."

"Emerald," I called, waiting until the girl turned back to me. "You know something about me, I know something about Mercury. That's not fair – tell me something about _you_."

The girl laughed. "Alright Heat – as it just so happens, I believe in fairy tales. I suppose you can just call me a dreamer."

She turned and continued walking away even as a frown pulled my lips downward.

I would need to watch her.

* * *

_Ten minutes later, Week 17, Beacon's Dueling Hall_

Ognis' team – Pyrrha, Blake and Regen Wasser – dominated their first match, quickly and efficiently putting down Russel Thrush of CRDL and his team. After that, Eik Verbrand's team managed to best Nora Valkyrie's.

Now, it was my team's turn.

Very few people expected us to go far - I heard the mutterings and saw the amused expressions when my team appeared next to the one formed by Legion D - our first opponent - on the display board. We possessed only sixteen wins, after all. He had well over twenty. Clearly he was going to win.

A scoff escaped me. The fools.

Legion E's opinion that the total win count of a team mattered more than their cohesion was one that was shared by most members of my class. In fact, I would go as far as saying that everyone but members of RWEBY thought I chose my team randomly, haphazardly, much like Nora Valkyrie did. Never would they expect Jaune and Alita to be hidden talents. Never would they expect our Semblances to mesh so well together - because, as it turned out, E's smog was indeed flammable.

A pleased smile came upon my face as I stopped in the middle of the dueling stage; around me, my team arrayed itself. Across from us, Legion D lined up with Cardin Winchester, Dune Noir of DMND and Ruby Rose.

"Remember what we spoke of," I said quietly, watching Legion D's team. None of them were speaking to one another and Ruby was actually scowling. Given Dune and Cardin were bullies, I imagined she just wanted to get the fight over with.

"We spoke of a lot," Jaune replied, uncertain.

"This amount of planning is… certainly a change of pace," Alita agreed, her voice as quiet as I'd come to expect it to be in the short time I spent speaking to her. The redhead was incredibly soft spoken.

Legion E chuckled under her breath, spinning her spear in her hands. "You'll get used to it. Just stick with me."

Alita nodded and shuffled closer to the taller girl, breathing deeply. "I'm nervous," she blurted out, coloring slightly at admission.

"Don't be. This is just like any other team fight."

She swallowed and shook her head, looking toward me. "For you… I don't- I haven't fought like- with…"

"Hmm… I think I can help," E inserted once it was clear that the smaller girl wasn't going to continue. Idly, she adjusted her breastplate. "Fightin' with one of team RWEBY is kinda intimidating. Jayd and Dacc were on edge for days leading up to our first joint training meetup. Didn't wanna disappoint you guys. You're top of the class and _everyone _thinks you have some super-secret training program. It's… kinda intimidating, honestly."

"Oh," I said, chewing on the thought. It made sense now that it was explained to me, my team's reputation in the dueling hall was formidable, this I knew. I simply never thought to look at it from an outsider's perspective.

That was a pretty large oversight on my part, one that frustrated me for having missed.

"Just stick to the plan," I said, continuing when the redhead only frowned in response. Assuaging fear was Ruby's or Yang's strong point – I was only good at it when I knew the person in question intimately. When I had time to learn their behaviors, their stories. I couldn't sympathize, not like the sisters could, I could only offer comfort through logic. "I chose Semblances that synergize well for a reason – I'm not expecting you to suddenly be able to sense what I'm going to do before I do it, no one is expecting that of you. That's illogical. Just remember that I formed this team the way I did for a reason and you are an essential part of that reason. We all are."

"Right," Jaune grunted, expanding his shield and grasping his sword. He almost sounded sarcastic.

"It'll be a trial by fire for all of us," I said in lieu of acknowledging the boy. Instead, I winked at Alita. The fire-breathing girl looked away.

"You've been hanging out with blondie too much," E snorted.

"Maybe," I allowed, watching Goodwitch approach the center of the stage and clear her throat. Quickly, I said: "Alright. Smoke plus fire is good. Leave Ruby to me. Cardin and Legion D first."

Legion E nodded. "Just stick near me," she said again to the shorter redhead at her side. The girl offered her a shaky smile in return.

"You're with me, Jaune."

"Yeah. Got it," the boy grunted even as Goodwitch started speaking.

"Attention. Your attention, please… Thank you. The third match will be between the teams that Enten Melkweg and Legione D'Acciaio assembled. Are you both ready to begin?"

"Good to go," I answered, offering the woman a shallow bow. Ruby caught my eye on the way back up and I winked at her; she grinned in return. We'd never faced each other in a duel outside of team training. This would be interesting. She was too agile for me to hit but the momentum buildup she needed to use her scythe left me with ample time to defend myself against her weapon – most often, we ended up canceling each other out.

Which meant it was time to see which team's non-RWEBY members were better – mine or Legion D's.

"Very well," the blonde professor said, her tone as flat and neutral as ever. "And you?"

Legion D threw a glance toward the professor and nodded, barely taking his eyes off my motley crew of misfits.

Goodwitch stepped back, satisfied, toward the edge of the stage. The dueling hall collectively seemed to hold its breath at the exact same moment.

"Begin!"

Cardin charged forward immediately, before the woman fully finished speaking, a roar on his lips. Legion D followed close behind him and Ruby launched herself into the air, off to the side of the stage. Dune Noir hung back behind his fellows, looking rather startled.

"Hold," I cautioned even as Legion E started generating smoke. "No- keep making smoke. Fire it up- quickly! Hold position I meant. Hold!"

Cardin reached us just as E's smoke caught fire. Jaune intercepted the boy, absorbing the force of an overheard blow with his shield and promptly stumbling backward.

'_Easier to redirect it.'_

I pushed the thought from my mind even as Legion D lashed out at the Arc boy; they, along with Cardin, were some ten feet in front of me.

"Legion!"

"I got it," the girl yelled back, thrusting her hands forward and delivering a fiery ball of smoke into Ultimatum's palm.

Not combustible, unfortunately, but it was flammable.

And the combustible part?

"Down," I yelled as I thrust my gauntlet-clad hand forward. Aura exploded out of my arm and brutally impacted the fiery orb within my fingers.

The air around me crackled and the crowd broke out into murmurs as the attack expanded into an intense wave of fire mixed with bludgeoning force in less time than it took to blink. The combination attack reached Legion D and Cardin a mere half second later and blasted them off of their feet, sending them tumbling uncontrollably back toward Dune, their hair and clothing singed.

"Up Jaune," I yelled even as a flash of red – _'Ruby!'_ – caught my eye. I turned toward it just in time to awkwardly absorb my leader's scythe blow with Ultimatum's gauntlet. The air left my lungs in a woosh given the momentum behind the girl's attack but it only stunned me for a brief moment. I got back to my feet just in time to see Ruby retreat under Legion E and Alita's onslaught.

"New plan. Alita. E. Get Ruby," the girls nodded and turned to chase after the agile girl. With any luck, they would be able to take my leader out of commission… though I fully expected Ruby to bring down at least one of them with her. It couldn't be helped; the combination attack took too long to setup and I knew my leader would never let us get away with that a second time. "Let's go, Jaune."

"Against all three of them," the boy said, shocked as he came to stand at my side. Cardin and Legion D were just getting back to their feet now.

"Yes," I snapped, annoyed, and promptly charged forward. Ultimatum groaned and shifted at my urging, expanding into its shield form even as I threw another blast of my aura forward with my left arm.

A grin appeared on my face when the attack hit its mark: Dune. The boy was helping his teammates to their feet – neither of whom appreciated his efforts. Cardin nearly shouldered DNMD's leader and Legion D shrugged off the hand with a glare. The boy then turned back to face me, just in time to receive a blast of pure force to the gut. He stumbled backward.

I launched myself into the air just as Cardin faced me and promptly brought both of my feet down on the boy. They did not meet his face, as I intended, but his forearm instead, staggering the boy and leaving me to land awkwardly in front of him.

Immediately, I was forced to block Legion D's sword strike with Ultimatum. I thrust the shield out at him in response, slamming the unyielding metal into the boy's midsection and sending him stumbling back just in time to allow Dune Noir to take advantage of my unguarded left side.

My unarmored limb snapped up, forced to absorb the blow from the boy's sword even as I pulled my shield back in to defend myself.

'_Where is Jaune,_' I thought, furious even as I turned away another blow from the boy's sword and barely managed to knock away an overhead smash from Cardin's mace. When the weapon impacted the ground, an explosion erupted from it, throwing me off balance along with Dune.

I stumbled toward Legion D and the boy landed a cutting blow across my torso with his sword and another along my left arm before I got Ultimatum in place again.

"Jaune," I spat as I threw myself backward, away from the three fighters. Quickly, I glanced over my shoulder only to find the boy still running toward me.

"You took off," he said quickly as he came to a stop at my side. "Too fast. Wasn't re-"

"Never mind," I snapped. "Focus Cardin."

"What," he grunted, wide eyed.

I ignored him, out of time as I was to elaborate and frustrated enough with him to forgo the explanation anyway.

I aligned Ultimatum with my right arm as quickly as I could and took aim at Legion D. A tightly compacted ball of force announced its presence with a hollow, metallic ringing and the boy's eyes widened even as he was taken off his feet by the attack.

Out of the fight. For now, at least.

"Cardin," I barked again as Dune Noir and the bully himself reached Jaune and I.

"Got it," Jaune called, lashing out at DMND's leader and forcing the boy to recoil. Quickly – faster than I thought the blond capable of moving – he stepped forward and planted his knee in the dark haired boy's chest and, ignoring Noir's flailing sword, smashed his shield into the boy's face.

"Can you-"

"Got it," I said, shrugging off another blow from Cardin's mace with Ultimatum. Impressed that the boy caught on – belatedly, but better late than never – I lashed out with my left hand and sent a less compact wave of force at DMND's leader. The boy ended up stumbling backward, leaving Jaune and I alone in the immediate area with Cardin.

"Watch it," Jaune called, smashing his shield into the larger boy's arm and narrowly managing to avert what would have been a solid hit on my left shoulder.

I sent the boy a clipped nod and stepped forward, Ultimatum collapsing as I did, to put the full brunt of my weight and strength behind my upper cut. The blow landed squarely on Cardin's chin, staggered as he was from Jaune's shield, and the Aura laced into the brutal attack took the boy off of his feet. I immediately took off after him once his feet left the ground, my blond teammate following behind me after a short exclamation of surprise.

'_Gotta finish him off before the other two get back in the fight.'_

My momentum built up with my charge was all thrown behind the roundhouse kick that I directed at the boy's head – a vicious blow, to be certain, but it certainly got the job done when it impacted the boy's chin with a solid smack.

The bell tolled then – signaling Cardin's Aura dropping into the red and thereby taking him out of the duel - even as I turned back to face the dueling stage, ignoring the increased murmuring from the student audience.

Alita and Legion E were still harassing Ruby. The former was clutching her jaw and cowering behind JYDE's E, who was using her spear and her mist to the best of her abilities but no longer was it on fire. Evidently RWEBY's leader neutralized the Alita's Semblance already.

'_Smart girl,' _I thought, unable to keep my pride at bay. That was my leader – able to think on her feet in the middle of a literal fire fight while she was outnumbered and still come up with a winning strategy.

"Enten," Jaune muttered, eying the stage as I was.

"I see him," I answered, turning my attention to Legion D as the boy charged at Alita Infuocato from across the dueling platform. He was clearly frustrated, probably because Cardin was already out of the fight. It was likely that he saw Alita, injured as she was, as the easiest way to even the odds.

Quickly, Ultimatum was brought to bear and aligned with my arm.

"Grab on to one of the bars," I urged Jaune quickly as the support bars team RWEBY normally used to fire the artillery shells extended from the shield's gauntlet. "They're special. It'll make my attack stronger."

"Huh?"

"Now," I snapped, completely and utterly tired of being questioned. In a calmer state of mind, I might've realized I was expecting teamwork on the level of what I found in RWEBY. Were I more level-headed, perhaps I would've realized that I never explained the many nuances of Ultimatum and the variety of attacks it offered me and – by extension – my team to Jaune or Alita.

But I was not calm. This team would be picked apart and destroyed by team RWEBY in seconds, so confused and disorganized were we.

But maybe that was the point? Maybe Goodwitch wanted us to learn to work with people outside of our original teams?

It was a frustrating venture, one that tried my patience and tested my temper. One that I did not wish to repeat. I had a team already. I did not need another.

My attention returned to the match just as Legion D reached Alita, scoring a solid blow across her back and prompting the girl to whip around just in time to barely parry another blow aimed for her shoulder. The redhead was back-to-back with Legion E, now, Ruby on one side and Legion D on the other.

I needed to do something, now.

"Jaune," I barked.

The boy jumped but finally, _finally_ grasped the support bar and, immediately, I started to drain Aura from him. He looked at me in askance, his eyebrows arched in confusion.

'_Can't feel it,' _I thought, incredulous. It must have seemed highly anti-climactic to him.

"Never mind," I answered him, pulling a sizable amount of Aura from the boy to mix with my own in Ultimatum's firing column. A flash of movement caught my eye on the side of the stage opposite where the brawl was occurring.

"Delay Dune," I said quickly, eying Legion D and Alita, waiting for the perfect moment to unleash the empowered Aura Bullet on the boy. I needed them to separate. I needed Alita to push him back or D to jump back. I couldn't risk- There!

_Boom!_

The Aura erupted from the shield with an even louder metallic whine and thundered across the stage in a tightly compacted blue ball of force. It caught Legion D square on his unprotected side after he jumped back to avoid the sparks that Alita desperately breathed at him and threw him violently away from the redhead. He landed in a heap near the base of the stands, unmoving.

I blinked once and, relived, nodded to Infuocato. She gave me a hesitant smile and-

A flash of red.

Rose petals littered the ground.

"Shit," I spat as the bell chimed twice, once for Legion D and once for Alita. Ruby managed to catch her off guard and land a solid blow on her midsection – enough to knock her total Aura into the red, under ten percent of its maximum and officially taking her out of the match.

"To me," I called to the stage at large. "To me, quickly!"

A burst of Aura left my unprotected arm when Ruby tried to follow Legion E and another when Dune tried to do the same to Jaune – they both knew instinctively that they were at a disadvantage, now. They both knew that the three of us grouping up meant nothing good for them. But try as they might to salvage the match, my attacks forced them away from their targets.

'_Good.'_

Now, I just needed to be careful with Ruby and I had the match-

Legion E stopped abruptly, only about half way to me, and spun on her heel. The girl threw herself at Dune Noir and thrust her spear forward. The blade was coated in smoke and, surprised as the boy was, her target was unable to parry the blow away from his torso. He stumbled backwards even as E pressed her advantage.

"Help her," I barked to Jaune even as I honed in on Ruby. The girl had jumped away from my blast of Aura, far enough away from the rest of my team that she couldn't-

The girl disappeared in a shower of rose petals and I only just held back the curse. I knew she couldn't jump the entire distance of the dueling platform in one go but she'd gotten good at chaining her Semblance recently.

I urged my feet forward just as Ruby reappeared, halfway to Legion E and Jaune, then promptly disappeared again.

"Behind you," I called upon realizing that the younger girl would reach them well before I would. She was fast. Too fast.

And reach them she did.

Her scythe caught E across the back and the girl grunted, her Aura dangerously low. She lashed out at Ruby but the girl danced away and Dune Noir used the distraction to land a blow on the dark skinned girl's back.

Legion E fell to a knee and the bell chimed once more.

Jaune, wide eyed, launched three attacks in quick succession from Dune's side, landing the first two blows unchallenged, given the boy was overextended. The third ended up being just enough to push Dune Noir into the red and, for the fifth time in the match, the bell chimed.

I came to a stop next to the Arc boy just as the mumbling in the crowd rose again. None of the previous two matches were this close, after all. My team was expected to be a push over given the other team had such better records than we did.

Simpletons.

That initial fire attack knocked Cardin and Legion D down to about half of their Aura. They essentially entered the match severely handicapped. And to think that Alita – _2-9 _Alita – was critical to that attack's success… Hopefully, this would teach my classmates a lesson in observation. In critical thinking.

It was easy to look at numbers and gauge strength that way, I just preferred to do it the _correct _way.

"Alright Jaune," I breathed, breaking myself from my thoughts and eying Ruby as she circled us. "We got this. Ruby and I neutralize each other when we duel – having you here should tip the scale in our favor."

"Got it," he said and I realized with a sudden clarity that all earlier animosity in his tone and his expression was gone. Fighting alongside one another was certainly an effective way to bond.

For him, anyway, I was still rather frustrated with him.

"We just need to keep her in one spot," I continued, allowing Ultimatum to decouple from the buckles on my leather that kept it in place. It fell to the ground with a heavy thud and my shells quickly followed it. "You defend. I attack."

He nodded shakily, swallowing heavily once. Twice. And wiping away sweat from his eyes.

"We got this," I assured him again as I eyed my Aura meter. Just under _50%_. Jaune was sitting at _70%_. Ruby: _64%_.

She must have danced circles around Legion E and Alita – perhaps I overestimated them because I certainly didn't underestimate my leader. For a girl two years my junior, she was unbelievably impressive.

"Boooooooring," I heard Yang call from somewhere in the audience behind me. "Yaaaaaawn!"

"Can't disappoint blondie," I muttered, matching the grin that appeared on Ruby's face. "Let's go!"

With that, I darted forward, free from having to carry around nearly two-hundred pounds of weaponry. It made me faster – much faster. Not on par with Ruby's Semblance or Weiss' natural grace and agility, but I could certainly keep up with Yang and Blake, now.

I reached Ruby first just in time for the girl to dart away from me off the kickback of her massive sniper rifle. She used the scythe's blade to spin herself around the hanging rod that held the dueling stage's curtains aloft and propelled herself to the other side of the platform.

There was nothing I could do but watch as she landed, spinning with the force of her momentum and promptly disappearing into a shower of red rose petals. She appeared again a good distance closer to me and it was then that I realized what her plan was.

"Shield up," I spat quickly. "Facehershield-"

Ruby abruptly appeared in front of us, hurtling toward Jaune with the force of a rampaging Ursa. The girl's scythe impacted the boy's shield heavily, throwing him easily from his feet even as she continued on by me. Before I could so much as lift a finger, she disappeared in another shower of red rose petals.

"Damnit," I muttered. Ruby and I only negated each other because I was able to absorb blows like that with Ultimatum. My weight and my strength matched her speed and momentum and we ended up at a standstill… Jaune couldn't do that.

And Ruby knew it.

'_Damnit!'_

Quickly, I pulled Jaune to his feet, wishing I wouldn't have ditched Ultimatum.

"Jump aside when she appears in front of us," I muttered quietly, rushed. Ruby was building up her momentum again and she'd be upon us in a few short seconds.

"But won't that-"

"Yes. Do it!"

"Alright," the boy acquiesced, waving his hands about in front of his face and turning to face Ruby. He bent his knees and crouched, shifting his weight ever so slightly to his right side, ready to get out of my way once the younger girl appeared again.

Good.

What I was about to do was desperate but I had no other recourse. If the duel continued in the same manner then Jaune would be whittled down – he lost 13% of his Aura with that last attack – and I would be powerless to stop it from happening. Ruby was too fast. Too agile. Too quick for me to catch.

I might've been able to match her at the beginning of the semester – it might've been possible for me to grab her before she got away after her attack, but her skill with her Semblance had improved by leaps and bounds since then due in no small part to my own Semblance's ability to help her focus hers.

A grin came over my face then and an intense feeling of pride accompanied it. Ruby had come a long, long way. She was even more of a force to be reckoned with, now. A fighter that truly earned her top rank in the class and stronger than her seven wins indicated. Most of her loses occurred early in our time at Beacon, before her Semblance improved. Before she learned to use her momentum in her charges better. No, she was a fighter that was far, far stronger than her record let on. One that was far, far better than students like Cardin Winchester, who had floated to the top on easy wins and bye weeks.

A flash of red.

Ruby.

She appeared in front of us again, hurtling at Jaune with Crescent Rose cocked and ready to knock the boy off of his feet.

But it was not to be.

Jaune, ready this time, threw himself to the ground. Even as prepared as he was, he only just managed to move out of the way and received a glancing blow to the shoulder for his troubles – a telling fact that spoke of just how damned fast Ruby was moving.

But he did it. He got out of the way.

And so, suddenly, Ruby was flying at _me_ instead.

I saw her eyes widen and my perception became detailed enough to see her knuckles turn white and the muscles in her legs tense. Her first boot hit the ground in front of me, already beginning an effort to avoid a collision with me, because that was the last thing she wanted.

We both knew that.

Aura burst out of my heels and propelled me forward, meeting Ruby's charge with one of my own. I lowered my shoulder and threw my arms forward, launching myself fully at the younger girl.

We met harshly and I heard the wind rush out of her lungs in a gasp as my shoulder dug into her stomach. Braced against the ground and augmented by my Semblance, I was able to stop the lighter girl in her tracks.

We hit the ground and I landed atop her. Quickly, I straddled her waist and planted my left hand on her shoulder, pinning the lighter girl to the ground. My right arm promptly cocked back and my fingers balled into the fist, Aura gathered in my hand and I threw it down-

"I yield," the girl barked, throwing her hands up. "I yield-I yield-I yield! Not the face!"

I stopped, halfway into my attack, even as a stunned smile broke out on my face.

'_I won.'_

"Didn't expect Jaune to move… figured I'd be able to keep knocking him down," the girl continued slowly when she realized I had stopped. I got off of her, shaking my head.

"He needed to act as bait," I said absentmindedly. This felt good. It felt good to win – to lead a winning team. I offered Ruby a hand up. "Otherwise you'd never attack me head on."

She laughed even as the crowd erupted into applause and Legion D cursed loudly. Nearby, his twin let out a whoop of excitement while Alita smiled softly, still cradling a jaw that was clearly sore.

"Tell her I'm sorry would you," Ruby asked earnestly, following my gaze to the small redhead. "I didn't mean to hit her so hard but that fire plus smoke Semblance combo was waaaay too much for me to deal with… I had to stop it somehow."

I shook my head, still smiling. "Should've expected you to see through that. You stopped us before we could use it more than once. I should've gone after you myself."

"Yeah," the girl shrugged as she went to retrieve Crescent Rose. It went flying upon our collision. "But you figured out how to lure me into that trap with Jaune – the Enten from the beginning of the semester didn't have the battle awareness to do that. You've improved."

I blinked, scratching at the back of my head briefly before I controlled myself and forced my arm back down to my side. Annoying habit.

Instead, I just shrugged. "I suppose."

"Suppose nothing," Ruby chirped. "You're getting good. Not as good as me, but pretty good."

"Alright Rose," I grunted. "Don't think I haven't noticed how often you can use your Semblance now."

"Yeah," she grinned. "I'm pretty much a bad ass now. Certified and stuff. Weiss said so."

"Did she really?"

"…Not in so many words."

"Uh huh."

I laughed and glanced toward the crowd. There were no surprised expressions or dropped jaws but I did see a fair amount of people in conversation, most of them gesturing toward me. That was good. Certainly-

Emerald caught my eye and waved before being drawn back into her conversation with Mercury.

"Speaking of your Semblance," I muttered, my mood souring. "Don't spread it around that I helped you with that."

"Huh?"

"Emerald," I explained. "You told her-"

"Nu-uh! She _asked _me about it! I never would have told her anything otherwise 'cause I know you don't want me to do that and everything. You're weird like that, you know. _Anyway_, I didn't tell her anything but since she asked about how I could use my Semblance and said you must help a lot, I figured she knew about your Aura thingy already."

A frown pulled at my lips then – Emerald learning about my Aura manipulation from a source other than Ruby was troubling. It reminded me that she and Mercury were still interested in my team, despite the fact that they didn't work for Torchwick.

That didn't mean they were friends, though – I would have to remember that moving forward.

Perhaps it was time I updated my notes.

"Winner: Enten Melkweg, Jaune Arc, Legione Estate and Alita Infuocato," Goodwitch announced as the scoreboard, now presenting a bracket with our temporary teams, reflected the changes. My team would next face the winner of Marrone Birch's and Fuoco Pilum's teams. Personally I thought Pilum, who managed to snatch up both Weiss and Dove – CRDL's only half decent fighter – would win. Given none of the other teams were formed on the basis of synergy, I could only judge their strength like the rest of my classmates did – by individual strength. Given that, it was clear Pilum had an advantage in Weiss and Dove whereas Birch only managed to get Ye'lo.

"Betcha Weiss' team will win," Ruby opined from my side as she grabbed my arm and started leading me off the stage, toward where the temporary teams were loitering amongst themselves between their matches. I'd stopped walking when I noticed Emerald in the crowd.

"Probably," I muttered, removing the limb from her grasp. "Your would-be bully got Ye'lo, though. She's good."

"Ohhh," Ruby moaned, her eyes widening in excitement. "It's gonna be a catfight! Weiss vs. Ye'lo! Stoic and cold vs. perky and chatty!"

I scoffed. "I'm sure they'll control themselves."

"Nuh-uh," the younger girl grunted. "Look at them!"

I glanced toward Weiss and Ye'lo only to find the former trying to stare down the latter with an intense glare. The Malamig girl was grinning widely and waving emphatically at the Schnee heiress and if I wasn't mistaken, I thought I saw a scowl developing on the white haired girl's face.

"Well… I think they'll control themselves," I amended.

Ruby laughed. "Catfight," the girl cackled. "Catfight!"

I could only sigh, becoming more certain by the second that the younger girl would be right.

* * *

Malamig Ink – Scroll OS [Version 3.4.672] © Malamig United. All rights reserved.

Initializing….

Welcome, MelkwegE….

C:\Users\MelkwegE: **vim z:\danger\SustraiE;**

…Opening file "SustraiE"…

_Emerald Sustrai. Affliation: Unknown. Semblance: Unknown. Motive: Unknown. Weapons: gun-like blades. Kept at her lower back. Special Powers: Unknown. Intelligent. Observant. Aware of Semblance's other abilities – security risk. __**Note: Place bug on her Scroll. **__Possible link to Roman Torchwick – friendly with Ironwood, released from ships unharmed. Beaten by Neo; exploitable? __**Note: Explore potential ire toward Neo.**_

wq!

Writing file….

Quitting….

C:\Users\MelkwegE: **vim z:\danger\BlackM;**

…Opening file "BlackM"…

_Mercury Black: Affliation: Unknown. Semblance: Unknown. Motive: Unknown. Weapons: Unknown. Special Powers: Unknown. Possessed metal legs – Emerald's information. Trusted? Possibly. Lines up with reason he resigned vs. Pyrrha Nikos. Also explains super-human grace – dancer's grace incorrect. Likely result of machine legs – precise, inhuman movements. __**Note: Explore possibility of EMP-like blast. Note: Explore possibility of disabling legs. **__Nikos is natural counter. Rarely uses hands to fight. Quiet. Arrogant – until caught off guakjdf-===.;ef __**Ruby's note! We should carry around a super-extra-large magnet!**_

wq!

Writing file….

Quitting….

C:\Users\MelkwegE: **logout –f;**

Closing session….

Good bye, MelkwegE….

* * *

**A/N: **Fire's bad, m'kay? And it's pretty hot, too, m'kay?

(SPOILERS) On a more serious note, I just realized it took three Semblances to do what _one_ facet of Autumn's magic could do at will. Powerful stuff, that is – and now Cinderfall has half of it. Given those events happened independently of RWBY's canon actions, that means she has half of that power in _here _too. Oh the possibilities…

(SPOILERS [Again]) Emerald mentioned that she had a headache because she influenced two minds in the scene where Yang 'broke' Mercury's leg. Why do you think that is? …She could have been talking about influencing Mercury's and Yang's minds together, which would mean that both of them would have seen Mercury try and kick Yang, but that would be unnecessary. Only Yang needed to see Mercury try to kick her so that she would launch her attack… I'm of the opinion that Emerald's Semblance has a 'recharge' period of some kind, meaning that she had to make sure Yang saw Mercury try to kick her and Coco (who became a victim of Emerald's illusions during her match) saw Yang attack Mercury for no reason. But then, that doesn't work. Emerald would have needed to make _everyone _see Yang attack Mercury for no reason, if that were the case…

Ugh. I don't know anymore. Let me know what you guys think!

Also, lemme know what you thought of the team fight. Nice change of pace? Too many names being thrown around?

And now, to my lovely reviewers…

**ZenotheWise135: **I disagree. I've had reviewers reference responses to other people before, that implies that some people read through all of them. It does buffer the word count though I think that's a bad metric on which one can judge a story – quantity doesn't mean much if the quality is crap. There's also the fact that at 250k words, about 500 words per chapter on review responses doesn't amount to much (5%-ish of the story as a whole). Thanks for your interest!

**NameChange-ChangeName Guest: **Your trap sense is on point, Enten certainly has a tall order in gaining JNPR's forgiveness. Yeah… taking Aura was one of those coincidences where the canon story just worked perfectly with mine. Fits together like puzzle pieces! Of course, with that power… who knows who will try and force Enten to use it. Thanks for your review and continued interest – I love the loyalty! And as far as Enten's similarities with the old man…

**Victory3114: **Pyrrha, mellow? After everything Enten put her (and her friends) through? Please! Thanks for your review!

**Shotugn Steve: **All valid points. If Enten were to face Pyrrha, she'd certainly be priority number one for him. Thanks for your review!

**5 Coloured Walker: **He was partially right about the smoke – it wasn't quite as explosive as he hoped it would be but his Semblance took care of that part. Unfortunately, combining three Semblances takes some doing and a lot of organization… organization this temporary team does not have. Thanks for your interest!

**Mistah Guest: **Gotta contact Roosterteeth – I feel like _Reiteration: 99 trees, but a birch ain't one_ is a good title. Got it in one on the Schnee ball plot advancements – we just have a few more duels to go through before we get there… Consider this chapter a late birthday gift too, hah! Thanks for the review!

**AP0084: **There's a thought – perhaps dust crystals used in combination with his Aura Bullet to add an elemental tilt to his attacks… Thanks for the ideas and the review!

**No name: **Never played Devil May Cry though I went and looked up Nero's Devil Trigger. You're on the right path – Enten's purple Aura will probably remind you strongly of Nero. Thanks for your review!

**Eclipse: **Fixing relations with JNPR is the plan… but plans often go awry! Thanks for your review!

**MrtheratedG: **He sort of bear hugged Ruby, right? Kind of? I think it counts for half a bear hug! Thanks for your review!

**Alicornication: **Thank you for your kind words. I pride myself on developing characters realistically – my hope is that you'll never have to sit back and go 'Why did he/she do that?'. Also, avoiding the love-at-first-sight romance trope haha! Thanks for your review!

**Oyshik: **Enten wants nothing to do with the Grimm, given they've taken so much from him already. Most, if not all, of the fears he carries around were caused by the Grimm as well… The only way he'd rule them is if he could destroy all of them by doing it. Thanks for your thoughts!

**Conchamp1998: **Canon will be loosely followed in that the overarching story will share many of the same elements (because Enten's ability to change the plot before he went to Beacon as extremely limited). As for Earth weaponry, maybe but probably not. He doesn't have the detailed knowledge needed to recreate weapons like flashbang grenades, unfortunately. Thanks for your review!

Till next time.

-Phailen


	31. Chapter 31

_Week 17, Beacon's Dueling Hall_

"_Begin!"_

Goodwitch's voice echoed loudly in the dueling hall but, quickly, it was suffocated by the roar of the crowd. Positive encouragement, negative jeers, it was very safe to say that the blonde professor's warning from the beginning of class was almost unanimously being ignored and she didn't look happy at all about it.

But what could she do? The audience had just seen Ognis Ty's team – Blake, Pyrrha and Regen – win a close match over Eik Verbrand's, a team that was stacked with both Yang and Jayd. Its last member, Regius, wasn't a slacker either.

They were excited. They were loud.

They were cheering.

For _me._

I heard it, subtle but certainly there. There was a quieter minority of the crowd chanting my name. 'Enten,' they were saying. 'Enten,' they were shouting.

There were other chants, other names being yelled, but hearing _mine _on their lips left me elated.

It made me want to prove myself to them. It made me want to show them that I was worthy of their praise.

And show them I would.

Fuoco Pilum – SAFR's F and the sole javelin wielder in our class. Dove Bronzewing – CRDL's only truly competent fighter and well known bully. Dusk Chord – DMND's second D, the boy who fought with a guitar that doubled as a large axe.

And, finally, Weiss Schnee.

Of my team's opponents, she worried me most.

Even now, she rocketed forward as Alita Infuocato and Legion E went about combining their Semblances behind me. Dexterously, she spun around Jaune Arc's shield thrust when she reached the boy and continued, unhindered and unbothered, toward me.

But that was to be expected. The Schnee heiress was far and away the most nimble duelist in our class. She was also intelligent. She knew she needed to shut down my team's three Semblance combo before it even got started. She also knew that I would be able to predict her strategy and develop a counter.

She was prepared.

The girl reached me and thrust Myrtenaster forward, the blade already glowing a sinister red. Her eyes widened, though, when I threw myself out of the way and she stumbled forward, over extended and vulnerable.

Right into Legion E's burning spear tip.

I watched as the weapon struck Weiss in the side and the girl threw herself into a glyph-aided back flip, away from my team. At the same time, Ultimatum was brought to bear and promptly used to redirect Pilum's javelin tip into the ground. It was then thrust forward and the boy, unwilling to bear the wrath of my shield slam, jumped back.

Behind me, I heard Alita and Legion E land. They promptly went about mixing their Semblances again and, given Weiss was still on the opposite side of the stage, they successfully delivered a fiery orb into the palm of my hand.

Our attack ready, I took a moment to observe.

The beginning of the battle went as I thought it would. Weiss was both smart enough and fast enough to disrupt our Semblance combo but she was forced to retreat by my duplicity. The girl likely thought I would stand and block her attack, rather than allow Legion E to use her spear's reach so effectively and delay the group attack in the process.

Pilum went after me but still, that was something I expected. He was fended off easily enough and, though neither of us had been hit, I felt myself the winner in that exchange. I bought my team enough room to combine our Semblances, after all.

A battle cry attracted my attention and I turned to find the last two members of Pilum's team – Dove and Dusk – charging Jaune.

Unacceptable.

I thrust my fist forward and, eagerly, the fire ate away at my Aura and hurtled itself across the stage in a fiery wave of power. The _boom _that sounded when the attack left my hand was promptly drowned out by the chanting of the crowd but the sight of fire streaking toward Dusk quieted them in short order.

They knew what this attack could do. The devastation of which it was capable.

Suddenly, every eye in the dueling hall was focused on Dusk, blissfully unaware as he was.

The guitar-wielding boy never stood a chance. DMND's slowest fighter, Dusk largely relied on playing chords from his guitar to fight. The unwieldy weapon was powerful, that much our class saw when he managed to plow Legion D from his feet during their duel a few weeks back. That power came a price, though.

A price he was about to pay.

The fireball roared and snapped and hissed as it blindsided him. I saw his face twist into a horrified grimace for a split second even as he tried to throw himself to the ground and avoid being hit. His weapon, however, foiled him. The chaotic mess and fire and energy plowed into his side and, rudely, he was lifted off of his feet merely by the initial force behind my Aura. It was the following fiery explosion, though, that tossed him, burnt and singed and with steam rising from his dark clothing, into the base of the stands.

He landed roughly, harshly, and did not move again.

Now, it was just Jaune and one of his bullies – Dove.

"_Dove will charge you," I muttered to the blond as Goodwitch prepared the stage for our match. "He'll hound __**you."**_

"_How do you know," Jaune asked, a doubtful furrow to his brow._

_The edge of my lips curled up, into a smirk. "A bully is nothing if not predictable."_

The first blow was blocked easily, redirected by Jaune's shield away from his body. The second met the same fate but the blond's follow up shield slam was avoided too. He was then forced to fall back when Dove's overhand blow proved to be too much for his shield to take.

Next to me, Legion E tensed.

"No," I barked, holding out my hand. "Delay Weiss and Fuoco. I'll backup Jaune."

The dark skinned girl nodded and, with a grin tossed to Alita, ran toward the remaining two members of the opposing team. Dusk was still out of it at the base of the stands.

The _clang _of metal meeting metal shook me from my thoughts and I returned my attention to Jaune's duel with Dove.

"_There," I said, satisfied as I took my hands away from his shield. "We're tanks, Jaune. Meant to __**take **__blows. Not dish them out."_

"_Feels kind of weird," he said, testing out the diagonal alignment of the shield on his left arm. Slowly, he brought the shield up in front of his chest. "Not too bad, though."_

Dove whipped his sword out in a sideways blow aimed at Jaune's head. The bully's lips curled into a scowl when his opponent ducked under the first attack and battered away his follow up thrust with a dismissive ease. Quickly, baring his teeth now, he kicked out with his leg and managed to catch the blond in the knee, sending him stumbling back, his arms flailing.

"_Lure him in," I said. "He expects you to be bad. He expects you to be hopeless. Play on those expectations."_

Jaune recovered but only after Dove managed a glancing blow on his sword arm. Quickly, the blond brought his shield up and blocked another blow from CRDL's D. He thrust his arm out but only managed to find air – his opponent side stepped the attack and brought his sword up in a line on Jaune's side.

Again, he fell back.

"_And, when he overextends… when he gets too cocky," I muttered, grasping Jaune's blade and channeling my Aura into it. The blond would be in for a pleasant surprise. "Make him pay."_

Dove was grinning, now. He fired a few bullets from the tip of his sword and Jaune raised his shield in response. His opponent now blinded, CRDL's D shoulder checked the blond and lashed out with his weapon again, catching the blond on his chest.

But only just – Jaune stumbled too far away from Dove for the blow to be anything but glancing.

"_Patience is our greatest ally, Jaune. Our shields and our Auras can take so much punishment before it even registers… Draw him in. Goad him. Lure him into your trap… And then, __**attack!"**_

CRDL's D scowled, likely displeased with only managing a glancing blow when his opponent was so off balance. He lunged forward with a thrust just as the blond regained his balance.

Jaune abruptly turned away from the blow, though, his eyes narrowed. His stance became more stable and his wrist, the one supporting his sword, immediately ceased moving in the limp manner it was before.

I felt my lips curl into a grin.

The blond's sword came up in a flash – his first attack of the duel – and caught Dove full on the chest. The weapon whistled and, with a foreboding blue flash, my Aura was unleashed.

Dove's body buckled and his head was thrown back even as his feet were forced from the ground. Head over heels, he flipped, uncontrollably tossed away from Jaune like a rag doll. Like a puppet with its strings cut.

Like an overconfident fool, paying for his mistakes.

He hit the ground hard, some ten feet away.

"Good job," I barked even as Jaune's eyes widened. Then, to the dueling stage as a whole: "Alita! Legion! To me!"

That said, I charged Dove even as the boy fought to regain his feet, dazed and wincing with every movement he took. My right arm was thrown forward in a jab that boasted the entirety of my weight behind it and, this time, he was unable to dodge it.

'_Call this payback for the three-on-one duel.'_

Ultimatum connected with the boy's gut, violently robbing him of the air in his lungs. I then hooked my left arm around the boy's and planted my hand on his back, rendering useless one of his limbs and hyperextending the joints. He hunched over further, held immobile and gasping for air, just as Jaune reached us, a shout on his lips and a downward slash of his sword all the greeting CRDL's D would get.

I lifted my shield with my free arm, facing Weiss, Fuoco and Dusk even as Jaune made short work of Dove, restrained as he was. Alita and Legion E landed near me even as I felt the arm I was holding at bay flex and desperately try to shake me.

But I would not move. I would not give. I was stronger than Dove. I was smarter than Dove. I was more driven than Dove.

No, I kept his left arm awkwardly bent out to his side even as Jaune knocked the sword from his other hand.

A guitar sounded, tearing my attention away from Dove and Jaune, and I turned just in time to find a nearly invisible wave of force rocketing toward my team. As well as I could without my left arm, I braced myself behind Ultimatum.

Dove tried to pull away but I grabbed the back of his armor. He was not going anywhere.

The attack reached me then, forcing my shield back several inches before I managed to match the pressure and hold against the attack. Once it passed, I immediately lowered my shield enough to see my remaining opponents.

Because, given Dove's Aura was sitting at _22% _and rapidly declining, I doubted he would last much longer.

Weiss was rocketing forward again, a grimace on her face. She would easily reach me in less than a second. Fuoco Pilum was following her as best he could but the boy evidently did not have a way to match the Schnee heiress' speed. He fell several seconds behind her. Lastly, Dusk was still standing in the same spot he was when he launched his attack. There was scowl on his face and I could easily see the deep furrow in his brow.

He would remain disappointed so long as he kept trying to move _me. _Yang's attacks in her full Semblance were the only thing that could do it, now. A little sound would always fall short.

I grunted and, just as Jaune landed yet another blow on Dove, turned my body, forcing the bully to stumble backward along with me. I released him just as he came to a stop in the path of Weiss' charge and my left arm quickly withdrew then returned to the boy in a quick jab that landed on his unprotected side.

There was no pressure behind the blow, given how quickly I had to launch the punch, but the Aura laced into my fist more than made up for the lack of power.

It threw Dove – still dazed and wincing – off of his feet and directly toward Weiss.

The Schnee heiress adjusted, though, and spun away from the boy with a graceful pirouette. The turn was so precisely executed that, even in mid-charge, it looked as though she moved away as easily as she breathed. She didn't even slow.

The bell chimed, signaling Dove's removal from the duel, even as I swung Ultimatum out at Weiss. My lips curled into a grimace when the girl planted a hand on the stage and contorted herself under my shield, neatly rolling under the blow and inside my guard with-

Myrtenaster lanced upward, at my side, and I winced away-

E's spear abruptly inserted itself between my torso and the rapier, knocking the blow away from me even as Weiss toed the ground and abruptly changed direction to avoid Alita's fiery breath.

"Thanks," I said, somewhat out of breath. Weiss combined the dexterity of Blake and the speed of Ruby – it made her horribly difficult for me to fight. The only saving grace I had in the entire situation was that she didn't hit _too _hard; I could withstand an assault from her for several minutes at least but… but there was no doubt in my mind that she would wear me down eventually.

She laid claim to a _9-2 _record for a reason.

"No problem," E grunted, adjusting one of her pauldrons even as our opponents regrouped. "She's hard to pin down. Hurts too."

I hummed in agreement, idly noting that she was at _48% _of her maximum Aura while Alita sat at _63%_. Jaune was at _81%_ and I was holding strong at _77%._ Meanwhile, Dusk Chord was left with _31%_, Fuoco Pilum with _67%_ and Weiss was at a comfortable _71%_.

"Combine your Semblances," I muttered, watching the trio of students across from me. Pilum wasn't pleased with something. Neither was Dusk. The Schnee heiress, on the other hand, was hiding behind her public face – I could discern nothing from her expression. "I want Jaune and Legion on Dusk. Get him down. _Fast_."

Fuoco was moving toward us now, having seen the girls work to combine their Semblances behind me. What struck me as strange, however, was the fact that Weiss remained behind…

Any further thought was cut off when the boy's javelin was thrust toward me. It found only the uncompromising metal of Ultimatum, though, and was stopped short of its intended target. Instead, it ended up in the ground.

"Here," Legion barked, thrusting another orb of fire into my hand before she darted away, following after Jaune as he charged-

I jerked my left arm away from Pilum's javelin, accepting a weakened blow across my torso instead, and Alita took the opportunity to spit fire on the boy. My leg kicked out as he retreated from the flames, bathing the ground in my Aura and leaving him fumbling to stay on his feet.

My left hand, pulsating with fiery, volatile energy, thundered forward-

A ear-shattering _roar_ erupted from where Legion and Jaune were facing off with Weiss and Dusk. I saw a glyph in front of the DMND member and, suddenly, JNPR's leader was hurtling through the air.

'_Weiss' glyphs,' _I realized. They could amplify _force_.

"Shit," I spat, cradling the energy in my hand even as it struggled against the Aura I was using to contain it. Jaune was at _46%_, now.

A javelin interrupted me while I was busy and I was forced to fend off Fuoco Pilum's renewed assault on my person. The weapon met Ultimatum with a loud _clang _and a shower of sparks. My right arm thrust itself forward and pushed him off of me.

"Alita," I barked. "Go help them. Keep Weiss away-"

_Boom!_

"Keep Weiss away from Dusk! E! To me!"

The redhead at my side nodded, wide eyed even as the orb in my hand shuddered again and I was forced to spend several precious seconds stabilizing it. Once that was done, I promptly collapsed Ultimatum, flexing the metal fingers and reveling in the metallic _clanks_ they made when they touched the palm of the gauntlet.

It was a foreboding sound.

'_Play time is over.'_

Pilum thrust his javelin at me again and I charged him in return. The blade of the boy's weapon shrieked when I shouldered into it with Ultimatum but my gauntlet – and my weight – won out; he was forced back and I managed to bully my way into his guard.

One could not fight in tight quarters with a javelin. Not easily.

My gauntlet's elbow found his gut with the momentum of my charge behind it and he hunched over. Immediately, after-

_Boom!_

-I thrust my shoulder up and caught him on the chin. He reeled backward, his arms flung out to his sides and blinking rapidly. I wasted no time in chasing after him with a blast of my Semblance directed at his feet.

The boy hit the ground and desperately swung his weapon at me. Off balanced and disadvantaged as he was, I was able to step back and avoid the blow entirely.

Once it passed by me, I channeled more Aura into Ultimatum and swung my fist down in a brutal display of Aura-enhanced strength. It caught him on his side and he curled around the blow, just in time for a newly-arrived Legion E to smash the butt of her spear into his chin.

The bell chimed and-

_Boom!_

…And once more, it chimed.

'_Damnit.'_

Jaune was down and Alita was now alone against two opponents that would clearly overpower her in seconds.

"Legion. Smoke in front of my left fist," I bit out, planting my right hand on the ground and going down to a knee to brace myself. "Now!"

The bell chimed again just as E stuck the end of her spear near my hand. Smoke starting forming at the end of it. _Flammable _smoke.

I had the fire in my left hand, still sustained and contained by my Aura.

"Keep generating that," I said, glancing up to meet the girl's eyes. Dusk was turning to face us now. "No matter what. Keep generating."

She nodded, her eyes wide and her eyebrows arched.

Satisfied, I turned back to our opponents and _channeled_.

I forced as much Aura as I could manage out of my left hand. The quantity of it, the speed at which it left my hand _burned_. It howled angrily as soon as it hit the open air because more _kept coming_. I pushed Aura out and I _didn't stop_.

My energy hit the fire in my palm and thundered forward, across the stage. Aura carried smoke and smoke carried fire. Just as the previous attacks did.

But this was not like those previous attacks. This wasn't just a single wave of force. This was no one-off attack. It did not end. It did not stop. I kept throwing Aura out of my hand and smoke kept eating it. The fire kept burning. Crackling. _Roaring_.

In short order, I had a _beam _of burning hot _force_ roaring across the stage's length. The heat was _intense_ where I stood and E was already sweating-

_Boom!_

The energy flared and _exploded_ in the middle of the stage. A miniature shockwave immediately announced itself with a wave of suffocating hot air and debris from the floor, torn asunder by Dusk's attack meeting mine.

But mine did not stop. Mine did not _end_.

The flare died and with it, my opponents' resistance. I saw Weiss hurtle away from the beam in the corner of my eye and-

The ground under me cracked and buckled, abruptly throwing me from my feet and cutting off my attack. Further, the stage floor _came alive _and suddenly I found myself flying through the air. Roughly, I was thrown against the audience stands' supports and the stage floor clung to me still, forcing my arms and legs apart and keeping me prisoner. Robbing from me my ability to move.

I grit my teeth and channeled my Semblance down Ultimatum-

"_Mr. Melkweg!"_

Goodwitch's voice. She was yelling… why was she- why was the dueling hall quiet?

Not just quiet, either. It wasn't quiet like a classroom was before class started, there was no low dim of whispered voices and murmured conversations. This was _silence._ This was an utter and complete _lack _of sound. No voices. No cheers. No insults. No shouts or metallic _clangs_ or bell chimes or… anything.

The only thing I could hear, the only sound I could make out, was the crackling of the dueling stage floor.

I blinked and, aware now that this definitely wasn't part of the duel, took a look around-

'_Oh shit.'_

Behind Weiss – the girl was staring, wide eyed and open mouthed, at me – there was a massive part of the dueling stage that was scorched a mixture pitch black and angry red. The burnt floor formed a line, starting where Legion E was on the ground, just as shocked as Weiss, and ending on the opposite wall where-

…Where it sported a massive, charred, smoldering scar. Even now, I could see tiny embers, red in color and steaming with the intensity of their heat, falling to the ground. It was the center of that mark that worried me, though, for there was an untouched portion of wall that was in the exact shape of a person.

My mind immediately started conjuring up every single curse word I'd ever heard in my life because if I killed a student at Beacon then not only would my life become incredibly more difficult, but the girls would almost _assuredly _disapprove.

Quickly, I glanced up at the Aura meters and sighed deeply in relief.

Dusk Chord: _3%_.

He was alive, then. I didn't kill anyone. I _would have_ but Goodwitch was observing for a reason and she just proved herself more than capable of stepping in when she needed to.

Satisfied that the boy was alive, my eyes then traveled over to my own Aura meter. _38%_.

I'd never continuously channeled my Aura before so I had no gauge of just how much it would burn in any given period of time. I knew now, though. My attack probably only lasted all of two or three seconds before Goodwitch intervened – to be able to channel my Aura for that amount of time and lose about a third of it-

"_Mr. Melkweg," _Goodwitch bit out, sounding frustrated. I glanced her way, noting Blake just below me. Actually, where I was being held against the stands would place me just underneath where I saw Emerald last. Back before the duel, when the girl was speaking with a team from Vacuo.

"Thank you," the blonde continued, clearly anything but thankful. With good reason too, I incidentally ignored her while I checked the Aura meters. "You will show yourself to my office, _directly _to my office, where you will wait for me – without touching _anything_ – while I finish this class and see to it that Mr. Chord gets the medical attention he needs. _Am. I. Understood?"_

"Yes, ma'am," I said quickly. My dry humor – amazing though it was – probably wasn't going to be appreciated here. Less than it was normally, even.

She nodded once, frowning severely. "Please remind the class what I say before _every _duel."

Well, she said a lot of things but I had a feeling I knew which specific part she wanted me to recite.

"There will be no intentionally lethal blows dealt-"

"_Thank you._ You may leave."

With that, the assorted pieces of the floor released me and I dropped to the ground some ten feet below. Immediately, I brushed some of the debris from my pants and sent Blake a smile as I walked from the dueling hall.

Only complete and utter silence was left in my wake.

'_How's that for a statement.'_

* * *

_Several hours later – Glynda Goodwitch's Office_

The good professor finally got around to entering her office about three hours after she first dismissed me from the dueling hall. I _knew _that the last duel didn't take that long – the girls informed me via Scroll that class ended some two hours ago, actually – so I could only assume that the woman wanted to make me wait.

If I were actually seventeen, the intimidation tactic might have worked – Goodwitch was known around school as a strict disciplinarian and many students dreaded it when they earned her ire. In reality, though, I was not seventeen and the woman's decision to make me wait only served to annoy me. I had better things to do than sit around and wait because she wanted to remind me who was in charge.

But I was told to wait and so I did. I waited. For three hours I sat but I was certainly not idle during that time – I ended up using the downtime to work on the Headmaster's app. I now had it transitioning seamlessly from radio tower to radio tower. Proudly, I could boast that the entire city of Vale was available for me to watch.

Next up, the Cross Continental Transmit System.

It was just as I was doing some refactoring – cleaning up some of my old code – that Professor Goodwitch entered her spartan office. The woman silently made her way to her desk and promptly sat down behind it. She immediately folded her hands over her mouth and narrowed her eyes at me over the digits.

"Your Scroll," she started neutrally, indicating the device with her eyes. The light shining in from the lone, tall window in the room painted her skin in a pale light, paler than it normally was, even. "The Headmaster's project?"

I nodded once. "I just got it to the point where I-"

"Are you aware, Mr. Melkweg, that you nearly killed a student today?"

"Ahh… Yes."

Her lips grew taunt and formed a thin line. "You are remarkably unaffected by the incident."

An observation – one that did not need a reply. I _was _rather nonchalant about it, I supposed. Was that a bad thing? I _didn't _kill any students so there was no reason for me to fret over the near miss. I messed up and took things too far; Goodwitch then stepped in and stopped it before something _permanent _happened.

The system worked.

It wasn't like I'd do the exact _same thing _again… I knew better than that. Fire beams were now in the 'too dangerous for Beacon' category, right up there with Ultimatum's cannon.

They were also in the 'awesomely bad ass things I can do' category, also with Ultimatum's cannon.

She sighed when I returned her gaze with a blank stare.

"I won't do it again," I ventured slowly. "I know now how much Aura it takes for me to channel like that and the amount of –"

"It is clear to me that you do not understand just how fragile life is, Mr. Melkweg. Your concern with your _Aura_ and your lack of reaction suggests a callous disregard for your classmates' safety."

My brow furrowed and my lips curled down into grimace because she couldn't be more wrong. She _could not _be farther from the truth.

'_Bite your tongue. Don't do anything stupid.'_

"I think you're wrong," I said at length, my voice terse. I shook my head. "I think you're wrong."

"Oh," she hummed, a doubtful eyebrow arched.

I nodded but did not elaborate any further. This woman did not know me and I, frankly, did not want her to know me. To verbally slap me across the face like that… To say that I didn't _value _life when I was on my _second _one… When I spent _my _life making sure my loved ones could live _theirs_…

I _loathed _people that jumped to conclusions like that. The ones that thought they knew _everything _and so-

"Let me make myself clear, Mr. Melkweg," the woman stated. "Beacon Academy defines lethal intent as knowingly and purposefully attempting to take a life. Given I was the authority figure in that dueling hall today, I can either decide you attacked Mr. Chord with lethal intent… or I can rule that it was an accident."

My frown grew larger. A power play, then? Either I tell her why I shouldn't be slapped with an attempted murder charge or she goes ahead and just makes an assumption.

'_Wonderful.'_

"I don't understand how fragile life is," I wondered slowly, my jaw tight. She could not be more wrong…

I rubbed at my eyes. "I believe I understand just how fragile life is more than any of my classmates could ever hope to. I understand that it can be brutally and abruptly ripped away by something as innocent as a walk in a forest. I understand that there are no shortage of monsters in Remnant – human, faunus and Grimm alike – that are perfectly willing and _able _to walk over the corpses of the weak without a second thought.

"I understand perfectly that life can be lost far too easily. I understand that implicitly."

"Your attitude suggests-"

"My attitude doesn't suggest _anything_," I spat, standing. "Everybody deals with death differently, Goodwitch! I deal with it by _moving on_."

The woman narrowed her eyes at me over her fingertips. Silently, she studied me for the several seconds it took me to return to my chair, a scowl on my lips.

"Do not interrupt me again, Mr. Melkweg," she said quietly, once I met her eyes. "This is not my first conversation with a student about nearly killing a classmate and it will not be my last. I have seen anger. I have seen fear. I have seen sorrow. I have even seen students _drop out _because they almost took a life. But never, _never_ have I seen the indifference you are displaying right now."

I shrugged and grunted in acknowledgement, a deep exhale leaving me. That outburst did me no favors – it was a stupid move. One that served no purpose. "People die. No use in dwelling upon it."

"Mr. Melkweg," she said, an annoyed exhalation of air leaving her nose. "I need to know why this will not happen again. Your behavior tells me that you have learned nothing of this mistake."

"I've learned plenty. I now know how much Aura it takes me to channel an attack like that, how quickly it drops the Aura of whatever it hits and just how deadly it is. I won't be using it against my classmates, just like I don't use Ultimatum's cannon against them. Too deadly. The objective of a duel isn't to kill your opponent."

'_Someone needs to send that memo to Nikos.'_

The woman eyed the shells on my waist with a doubtful arch to her brow. "You have no emotional reaction to this? None?"

I opened my mouth to respond but, before I could, Ozpin's voice sounded in the office.

"If I might interject," the man said, a hologram of his face appearing over the blonde professor's desk. "I apologize for the deception, Enten, but Glynda was worried that you might be a danger to my students given your… unique approach to dueling. Your less than emotional response to this entire event only furthered her concerns and ultimately convinced her to speak to me before she returned to her office. Now, given the lives of my students may be in danger, I felt it necessary to see that said danger was neutralized."

If that didn't sound foreboding then Ruby didn't really like strawberries. Did he truly see me as that much of a threat?

"Rest assured, I do not think you will be murdering any of your fellow classmates," the older man continued. "No, in fact, I believe you when you state that you understand how fragile life is. Sadly enough, you are not the first Beacon student to experience death before coming here and, doubtlessly, you will not be the last."

He sighed and took a moment to sip at his mug. "Glynda _is _correct, however, when she stated that you were the first student to appear completely nonchalant over nearly killing a classmate. As I said before, I do not believe your indifference is linked to a lack of understanding. You know life is fragile. But that begs the question… why do you not show emotion?"

"My parents," I said. "They-"

"Others have lost parents, Enten. Many students have lost _more _than you but still, they reacted with emotion in this situation."

I swallowed heavily. The fact that I was on my second life had given me a somewhat jaded view of death, I knew that. How was I to know that, if I died on Remnant, I wouldn't just pop out somewhere else as a baby? Maybe my life would truly end if I died here? Maybe it wouldn't… I didn't know and I didn't care to dwell on it. _That _was why I was so nonchalant. I found it hard to sympathize with people living their _only _life when I already had two.

The office fell into silence while my thoughts consumed me and it was only when Ozpin's voice startled me from my thoughts that I realized that.

"I have a story to tell you, if you'll humor me," the man offered.

A nod was my answer before I even really thought about it. The conversation topic had taken a turn for the worse and it was getting dangerously close to subjects that I never wanted to talk about. Not with these people. Not right now.

"I met Ruby Rose," the man started before pausing and humming in thought. "I met Ruby Rose some six months ago… Perhaps it was seven, but that is beside the point. We met and we spoke briefly about her talent, about potentially being accepted into Beacon Academy two years early. She was understandably ecstatic throughout the duration of the conversation and, several times, she used a phrase that caught my attention: 'came out of left field'."

'_Uh oh,' _I thought. I knew Remnant did not have baseball; now that I thought about it, it did not have any sport with a left and a right field, actually. I would need to convince him that 'left field' referred to a childhood game that Ruby and I played…

And then tell the girl not to use that phrase again.

"The airship totally came out of left field. That fire really came out of left field," Ozpin recited. "At the time, I thought nothing of it. Children often come up with catch phrases, some of which survive to adulthood. It could have even been something specific to the island of Patch – I did not know and so I paid it no mind. But then… then, just a few weeks ago, I spoke to Blake Belladonna after her night in captivity.

'_Wonderful. There goes the childhood game story.'_

"She used the same exact phrase, in the very same manner… I found myself curious and so, I asked her where she heard it. She did not, however, tell me that Ruby Rose used the phrase. Rather, she said _you _did, Enten."

The man paused and sipped at his mug. His eyes never left my face even as I fought to keep it blank amidst the realization that I'd have to spin a story about the phrase being a team RWEBY thing.

"But I put the issue from my mind. I spoke to Ruby the same night and she confirmed that she first heard the phrase from you as well – I knew now that it was _your _phrase. My curiosity was sated and, as I said, I put the issue from my mind."

I held my tongue when the man stopped speaking to take another drink from his mug. Goodwitch was watching me like a hawk now and I had a feeling that interrupting the Headmaster would only make matters worse. Ozpin had this… presence about him, one that suggested he knew everything there was to know. It used to intimidate me, once upon a time, but that was before I started developing the mapping application for him. Before I learned that _he _needed to learn about Vale's residents to know what he knew. Gone were the naïve days wherein I simply assumed the man knew everything… now I knew better.

The Headmaster of Beacon Academy cleared his throat.

I licked my lips – even though he may not know _everything_, he was still incredibly observant and very, _very _intelligent. One did not live as long as he did and come to the position of power he held without a _significant_ amount of wisdom and wit in equal amounts.

Then, Ozpin clapped his hands together with a sense of finality. It tore the heavy atmosphere away from the room immediately and, to complete the jarring transition, the man continued: "Glynda – I am confident that Enten understands just what he has done and how serious it could have been. If you are satisfied…"

The woman swallowed, finally drawing her eyes away from me. "I trust your judgement, Headmaster," she said slowly.

"Very good," the man said, smiling slightly. His mug was back. I'd never seen him without it… almost like I was with my Scroll. "Enten: could you stop by my office this weekend? I have a few questions about the map – I believe I may have bumbled into freezing it."

I blinked once, surprised. "Oh, right… Yeah that sounds good."

And then, without another word, he was gone. A heavy silence the only thing left in his wake.

"Do not think you are going to go unpunished," Professor Goodwitch intoned after allowing the quiet to linger for several seconds. "Report to my office after your classes next Monday."

I swallowed and nodded once, eager to leave. I needed to watch myself around the Headmaster and, by extension, the blonde in front of me. In her presence was not where I wanted to be.

I wanted to be alone. I wanted to think.

She nodded in return. "Good. You are dismissed."

* * *

**A/N: **So, when chapter 16 of this story came out, I was sitting at about 100 reviews. I know it's superficial of me, but damnit it all, cracking _400_ reviews 14 chapters later is amazing! Thank you all for your support, for your kind words, your critiques, _everything_. I used to write only for myself but now, I write for all of you as well.

So thank you.

I hope I'll be able to enjoy your company in the future too, because I've got another 15ish chapters in this fic before I think it'll reach the end of my plot. …Of course, I've pushed off scenes for four chapters before because I thought of more character development so let's just call that 15 number an estimate, alright?

_Anyway_, as of this chapter's release, Reiteration is sitting at 403 reviews, 392 favorites and 464 follows! Of all RWBY fanfics, it is currently number 55 when ordered by review count and number _three_ – yes, _**three**_ – when 'OC' is one of the characters.

Have I mentioned how much you guys rock? Validation is a heady drug – knowing _you _enjoy what I enjoy writing is far and away the best reward I can receive for writing.

So thank you.

Now, without further to-do…

**Name-Change: **Always scheming… always plotting. It makes for an interesting story if things don't go as expected, amirite? And good news on the potential fight vs Blake and Pyrrha – don't have to worry about that anymore! Way to go Enten! And of course the General isn't plotting to capture Enten, why would he do that when all Enten has to offer is never-before-seen abilities that could revolutionize Atlas' technology?! Preposterous, I say. Preposterous! Thanks for your review!

**Tdychko: **Jaune kicking Pyrrha's butt needs to happen. Some how, some way… The potential hilarity there is too much to pass up haha! Thanks for your thoughts!

**Nemrut: **Vengeful Pyrrha makes me smile, even more so now that the (spoiler ahead) show is starting to show her breaking down. There was some violence against Jaune that had me going: yes! I knew it! Anyway… Glynda has a role to play in the future, that much I'll say. Thanks for your thoughts!

**Oyshik: **Normal guy on Earth but if you take that normal intellect and throw it into Remnant without so much as a 'by the way, you might die' then I think that normal intellect might turn into something… well, something more like what Enten has now. Nice catch with Emerald Thanks for your review!

**AP0084: **I like your thoughts on Enten's Semblance – dust is a mysterious force in Remnant, as is Aura… who knows how they interact? (Unless you just want an explosion, then everybody knows dust can do that, but honestly, that's far too boring!) Yang recognizing her mother's account is sort of up in the air; RWBY never mentions Yang knowing (or not knowing) her mother's name. I went with the latter, more buildup for later, after all! Lastly: on Enten planting himself to the ground to use Ultimatum alone, I believe the recoil from the cannon firing would rip his body in two. Aura might be able to explain away being left whole but… man, with that much force being generated, it'll be hard to ever _not _go flying thanks to the kickback. Thanks for your review!

**Themetaduck: **I can see that – lots of fighters to describe without any mental picture of how they fight. It was tough, hopefully this chapter's duel turned out better? And Enten even lost… in a roundabout sort of way! Thanks for your thoughts!

**Drmethilon: **I might just have to get Yang to use that pun. EAJE is a good one! Thanks for your thoughts!

**Guest numero dos: **(don't worry brah, I got you with the numero). Blazing fire is only half of Enten's original name… the other half, I imagine, will connect the proverbial dots! And on the contrary, I think Emerald is _very _subtle, which means if she just threw out the fake leg breaking plot… Cinderfall must not be using it anymore! And lastly, no, the mistake in Mercury Black's notes was intentional. Ruby just stole Enten's Scroll… looks like she messed up some text in the process. Oh well hah! Thanks for your review!

**MrtheratedG: **Cinderfall will be dead before this story ends, though she won't make it easy. That's how far it's going to go… to the bitter end! Fans for Enten: we saw something of a prelude to that this chapter. Maybe the pyromaniacs will fall in line and start to worship him? That'd be interesting! As far as Enten's nickname: probably not, at least not anything beyond Yang's 'big guy' or something. A pet name of sorts. Thanks for your thoughts!

**AbjectTestment: **First off, thank you for your kind words – I love reviews that tell me what readers like most about my story, from the most complex to the most simple. It helps me when I write! As for Enten's pairing (or lack thereof): there will be a… pseudo pairing. As for your hint, he has seen (and talked to) the lucky lady in the story already! Thanks for your review!

**Purahmel: ** I do so like subtle hints. Nice catch too! I didn't expect anyone to get that, really. Thanks for your review!


	32. Chapter 32

_Several hours later_

It was only several hours after I left Professor Goodwitch's office that I decided it would be Ruby that laid claim to coming up with the 'came out of left field' phrase. The girl had a tendency to mix and mash her words together when she referred to someone's side. Or flank. Or wing. Or port. Or… well, the point was that if she used all those words, then why not 'field' as well?

The story was shaky. I knew that. Made even more unreliable because Ruby admitted that she first heard the phrase from me. But on such short notice, it was the best I could come up with. Maybe I'd be able to get the team as a whole to help me brainstorm more ideas later. Between the five of us, surely we could come up with a convincing story for why we and we alone used the phrase 'came out of left field'.

I sighed and leaned back on my bench, closing my eyes and folding my hands in my lap. The left field issue was put from my mind as was the Headmaster's app and my homework and the attack that nearly killed Dusk not even eight hours earlier. It was a nice night and I was going to enjoy it.

The wildlife – crickets, birds and even an owl or two – made for a soothing ambience that allowed me to relax fully for the first time in several days. I stretched my legs out in front of me and crossed them at the ankle, slouching as far as I could into my seat.

Weiss would have been horrified at my posture, were she here. The thought made me grin wryly. I enjoyed winding the Schnee heiress up from time to time, usually Ruby and Yang did it for me, though. Rare was the occasion that my leader didn't clomp-

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end suddenly and I opened my eyes, wary. I glanced about in front of me but found only the forest trees, gently swaying in the night's breeze, answering my searching gaze. No red eyes lurking in their shadowy depths. No notable threats…

Nothing but me and the scenery.

My brow furrowed even as I turned around, I was certain someone was near me-

"_FUCK," _I spat, nearly jumping completely off of the bench because Blake was _right behind me._ And not right behind as in several feet either, no, the insane girl was _maybe _six inches away from the back of my head.

_Six inches._

She was also smiling widely.

"Don't _do _that," I chided, desperately trying to calm my heart down.

"Remember the laser pointer?"

"Yes I remember- _That's _why you scared me half to death!?"

"Yes."

"Someone should put a bell on you," I sniped and, still shaking, slouched back onto the bench. My heartbeat was slowing though it still certainly felt like the organ was trying to jump out of my chest. Needless to say, my relaxed state was completely and utterly destroyed… but at least now I had company.

'_Oh joy! Company!'_

Company that found it funny to scare me out of my wits. Wonderful.

"Do you do this every night," I needled, still displeased that she managed to get one over on me so well. "Do you stalk Beacon's halls, searching for innocent, unwitting students to scare half to death?"

"We're not in Beacon's halls."

"That's not even the point!"

"No."

I groaned again even as the girl placed herself next to me, the pleased smile still present upon her lips. In her hands, as usual, was a book.

A deep exhale of breath left me and my hand came up to rub at my eyes. I held as still as I could and, eventually, my heart finally calmed enough that I stopped shaking. All the while, Blake sat next to me, _humming _of all things. Like _she _wasn't to blame for any of-

'_Wait a minute.'_

Blake _never _hummed. She did not make noise unless it was absolutely necessary, the only exception to that rule being her high heeled shoes – conveniently enough, she was presently wearing a pair of simple flats… That must have been how she managed to sneak up on me.

'_Focus, Enten.'_

Right, the noise. Blake did not speak unless she felt she needed to say something. No wasted words. No wasted actions. She did not grunt or cough or even _chew _loudly and she certainly did not _hum_.

My lips curled into a frown even as the displeasure fled my mind, concern taking its place. "What's wrong?"

She turned to me, her eyebrows raised ever so slightly. "What?"

"You're usually asleep by now… or trying to fend off Yang's pestering. Not only are you out here, but you're making noise too. Something's wrong."

"…Nothing's wrong."

"The fact that your hair is tied back says otherwise," I noted, watching as the blank look faded from her features. "You only ever tie it back when you roll out of bed without time to do anything else with it."

She frowned and, reflexively, reached up to touch her hair with one of her hands. When she realized what she was doing, though, she quickly brought the offending limb back down to the book in her lap.

"The baggy shirt, the boy shorts, the bags under your eyes, the-"

"Okay," she grunted. "I get it. Yes, something's wrong. No, I don't want to talk about it. Yes, I'm sure because I don't need _you _picking apart my thoughts too!"

I looked back toward the forest and exhaled through my nose. She didn't want to talk; that was something I was familiar with. "Sometimes… sometimes, it helps to just… ramble," I offered quietly.

Her shoulders hunched and I heard the girl sigh.

"Not always."

"No," I agreed. "But when someone is willing to listen, when someone is genuinely willing to help…"

She snorted and I turned to find her staring at the book in her hands. Immediately, I identified it as the second book in the series I was reading. The sequel to the book she gave me. The one she finished months ago.

"I… I found it hard to sleep," the girl admitted slowly. "I had… _have _too many thoughts. Too many…" She swallowed. "Too many worries."

I studied her for a moment longer but, given she was looking down and the fact that the moonlight was not bright enough to see minute details, I could not learn much. Her hunched posture indicated sorrow of some kind and the fact that her bow refused to twitch even once in the ten seconds I watched it led me to believe that these worries indeed weighed heavily on the girl's mind.

"Tell me," I said.

She looked over at me, her yellow, slit eyes shining in the night. That was off-putting, once upon a time. They glowed, almost like a cat's would, in the darkness. It wasn't something overly obvious but if you were speaking with the girl then it was something that would readily become apparent. I thought it was also the reason the girl went to bed so early – the later she stayed out, the more likely someone would notice the odd feature.

"What did you think of my book," she asked instead, after a lengthy moment of silence formed between us. She was watching my face closely.

"Your book," I said, surprised. "How do you know I'm done with it?"

"I saw you finish it," she said, shaking her head. "Yesterday morning. At breakfast."

Sometimes, I forgot how observant, how _aware _Blake was. Only Weiss came close to the faunus in terms of general awareness and, even then, the heiress fell short of Blake's ability to see and hear an entire room. To take in the actions of so many different people all at once. Ruby, Yang and I couldn't even hold a candle to the kind of passive information she collected.

"Well," I laughed. "It was interesting, I'll give you that. Plenty of difficult decisions to make. Plenty of bad choices. It really drew me in… The main character - the general, right?

She nodded.

"He won his war in the end," I noted. "But it was certainly…"

"Costly."

"Yeah. He sacrificed nearly a quarter of his soldiers. Including that buddy of his, the dreamer…"

"Ruby," Blake muttered.

I scoffed. "Yeah. I thought they were similar. Both of them even have an older, protective sibling."

The book contained so many parallels to team RWEBY that I began to suspect, when I was only about a quarter of the way through it, that Blake gave it to me for a reason. There was an optimistic dreamer that reminded me of Ruby, an overprotective sibling that vaguely resembled Yang. Weiss' match was made in a young man that used his money and influence to run a propaganda war against the main character and I thought Blake was most similar to one of the general's lieutenants – a young lady that overcame the death of her parents and a crippling illness to serve in the fictional army.

And that left me…

"You gave me that book for a reason," I ventured, a bitter smile on my face. "You wanted me to see myself in the general."

Blake hummed softly and folded her hands in her lap, looking down at the digits as they rested on the book she brought with her. "The general was a man willing to do anything to get the job done. He was willing to sacrifice a quarter of his army on the off chance that it might win the war… and he won. He won, but he died a lonely death. Sad. Miserable…"

I swallowed heavily. Was that really all she thought of me?

"I wouldn't-"

"You don't remind me of him," Blake said, lifting her head up and making eye contact with me. "I… I think you're the inventor."

"The inventor," I asked, surprised. "He… Well, okay… I could see that."

She nodded. "He was tolerated at best by people who didn't know him – his methods were… questionable at best. But he created so many wondrous things, so many life-saving technologies and powerful weapons that helped the general win his war. And when the inventor's laboratory came under attack, he sacrificed himself to ensure that any information on his experiments, his inventions, was spared destruction… He sacrificed everything to protect his country, the people he loved, and yet, still… they reviled him.

"I think you resemble him," she admitted softly. "You might seem cruel and cold and unfeeling to the people who don't know you but… but I know you. I know you started drinking tea in the morning so I wouldn't have to walk to the cafeteria alone. I know you keep 'forgetting' to lock your Scroll so that Yang can play that game you've been making – the one that shows up on the screen every time she finds the Scroll lying around. I know you don't ever _really _forget to do your combat strategies homework and I know that it's no coincidence you manage to mention it when Ruby starts fretting over something. I also know that Neptune has recently gotten a lot more receptive to Weiss' advances – after you started tagging along when I went to find Sun."

Slowly, her lips curled up into a smile.

"No. You aren't the general – not to me, or Ruby or Yang or Weiss. You're the inventor."

As she spoke, a smile developed on my face and by the end of her speech, it was wide enough to make my cheeks sore. "Come here," I muttered, wrapping an arm around the girl's shoulders and hugging her to my side. "I don't think I'm mad at you for scaring me anymore."

"Good," the girl said, returned the embrace with one of her own arms. "Because I still haven't gotten you back for the laser pointer."

I scoffed. "You do anything else and I'll tell Yang about your fixation with tiny red dots."

"No you won't."

"I'm sure she'd _love _to hear about your weakness. You know how she gets…"

"_Enten_. Or I could tell her that you were the one who filled her shampoo bottle with blue hair dye."

A grimace came over my lips – I'd forgotten about that. "I didn't do-"

"If I give her a target, she'll take it."

"Devious girl. You'd throw me to the Grimm just to get what you want," I laughed.

She stiffened in my embrace immediately and that served to steal from me my amusement rather quickly.

"What's wrong," I asked, leaning away from her so that I could look her in the eye. An owl announced its presence in the distance with a _hoot_ even as the edge of my lips started to curl downward.

She shook her head, her hands tightening around the book in her lap. Slowly, her lips parted, but she clamped them shut again after a brief moment and closed her eyes. The girl curled into herself and, suddenly, her baggy shirt looked absolutely engulfing on her thin frame.

"Blake," I wondered, grasping her shoulder. "I didn't really intend to tell Yang-"

"It's not that," she said quickly. "I mean- I just… the book. The characters I mean. I… What did you think of the general?"

"Objective," I said immediately. "A realist. He knew he needed to win the war and he was willing to do whatever it took to see that done. He was respected but never loved. Feared, but never admired. He accomplished his goal – he won the war and brought a new era of peace to his country, but in doing so, he sacrificed his humanity. The emotion that made him, _him_. He… it was a costly price he paid – one that I'm not sure I could manage."

Blake swallowed heavily. "Willing to do whatever it took," she repeated. "I… I _need _to stop the White Fang. They can't… _I _can't…"

"You see yourself in the general," I realized even as the girl ducked her head. Her hands were shaking. "And you're scared… scared of what you might do, the choices you might make to stop them."

The girl nodded her head once – a jerky motion. She drew her knees up to her chest and a cool breeze swept through the area, rustling the leaves on the forest's trees and causing her hair to sway.

"This is what's keeping you up at night, isn't it?"

Another nod.

"Well that's stupid."

Her head darted back up with an affronted look splayed across her features. Her brow was furrowed, her eyes narrowed and her lips were curling downward.

I shrugged, looking back toward the forest. "You agreed to go to the Schnee Ball, remember? You didn't even think about it, either. You knew that team RWEBY would benefit from meeting so many wealthy sponsors. You knew Yang really wanted to go, too, and agreed to come along without any trouble. If knowingly placing yourself in close proximity to people that probably revile you simply because you _exist _isn't loyalty to the team, then I don't know what is."

"I don't think that's a good comparison," she said, dipping her head back down to her knees. "Ending The White Fang is different than going to a ball. It's so much more important…"

"Yeah, I guess," I allowed. "But I don't really have anything larger than this dance to throw at you as an example."

She sighed and her shoulders drooped. "I… I kind of hoped you'd be able to convince me that I wouldn't do… what I think I might."

"I can't make you believe anything unless you _want _to believe it."

"I do! I don't want to sacrifice you guys! Not for anything," she stated, her eyes widened and her tone emphatic. "But The White Fang is on a whole new level compared to this stupid ball."

"Yeah, yeah they are," I muttered. "They've been stirring up trouble where my family lives, you know? Convincing young people that fighting is the best solution… there have been more incidents with the peacekeepers in the last year than there were in the previous ten."

"All the more reason to make sure they stop spreading all this violence. All this hatred. All this death and destruction that only serves to tear families apart and brutally snuff out innocent lives far too early."

A glance out of the corner of my eye revealed the girl to be glaring ahead into the shadowy forest, her eyes narrowed into thin slits. Her jaw was tense and her hands were curled around the book dangling from her fingers intensely enough that her knuckles bulged.

"What happened," I asked, quietly.

"Huh," she grunted, turning to face me with her eyebrows arched and the angry look fleeing from her face.

"With The White Fang," I elaborated. "What happened to make you leave them?"

The girl swallowed and shook her head. "I don't want to talk about that – suffice it to say, I had my trust betrayed."

We lapsed into silence then and, once I realized she was done speaking, I reclined on the bench. My eyes closed and my breathing slowed. It'd been something of a hectic day and I was more than ready for it – and this weekend – to end already. The Schnee Ball tomorrow would probably end up being a pain and I had a feeling Weiss was going to be stressed leading up to the event. The girl worried for her reputation and rightfully so.

Something fell into my lap and I opened my eyes, startled, to find Blake's retreating hand leaving behind the second book on my legs. I was excited to read it, were I honest with myself. The parallels drawn between my team and the characters within the pages were interesting, though I wondered who I would relate to, now. Ruby's character was dead too. Yang's lived, though, and so too did Weiss' and Blake's-

"Oh," I grunted, surprised. "I almost forgot – I didn't relate you to the general in the first book."

The faunus stilled and, slowly, turned to look at me. There was a neutral look on her face, one from which I could not discern any emotion.

"The lieutenant," I offered, smiling slightly. "Overcame losing her family. Overcame nearly losing a leg. Overcame adversity and hardship and spit in the face of giving up. _That's _who you remind me of, Blake."

Her eyes searched my expression for a few seconds longer before a smile bloomed on her lips and she placed her chin back down on her knees.

"I like that."

* * *

_The next day, Beacon Academy – Dining Hall_

"So then _she _said she was gonna make sure I wore heels 'cause if I didn't then I'd embarrass her. And the team. And Yang. And my dad. And you. And Zwei. And everyone else she could think of… But I'm _pretty _sure _you _don't care about heels 'cause you're already taller than everyone else on the team anyway so we probably all look super short to you no matter what."

Ruby paused to eye me, a half-eaten sandwich held aloft in her formerly pristinely manicured fingers. They were smudged with sauce of some kind, now.

The two of us were sharing a late lunch before we were due to leave for the Schnee Gala in a few short hours – given the odd time of day, there were only perhaps a dozen other people in the expansive, sunlit hall with us.

"Right," the girl asked, pausing only for a brief moment to wait for a reply. "_Right_. You don't care about stupid high heels. Anyway, I snuck out when Weiss went to go do her hair 'cause I'm _suuuuper _hungry and I'm pretty sure my hair is fine anyway. Besides, food is more important than hair." She paused to take a bite of her sandwich. "Always."

I hummed my agreement through a mouthful of corn. Yang, Blake, Weiss and a reluctant Ruby started getting ready for the ball at around ten this morning. I was told, in no uncertain terms, that I had until 9:45 to get myself ready, at which point I would be banned from the dorm room until it was time to leave for Schnee Manor.

I intended to obey that order with nary a complaint, mainly because Weiss was on a warpath and incredibly stressed out over the ball to boot. The last thing I wanted to do was cause her to worry more because I suspected – and ended up being right – that Ruby would be doing plenty of that all by herself.

"You should take some food back when you go-"

"I'm not going back. Not until you do."

"I'm not _allowed _to go back, remember?"

The girl snorted and grabbed another handful of potato chips. "Then I as team RWEBY's prestigious leader lift that ban forthright!"

"Forthwith?"

"Whatever," the girl said around a mouthful of salsa-covered chips. I wasn't certain, but I had a feeling she was eating even more messily than usual to spite Weiss.

"Ruby," I started slowly, a minute frown on my face. This had to be approached carefully. "You know how stressed Weiss is. Do you think she appreciates having-"

"Do you think _I _appreciate having my face manhandled?!"

"No," I allowed. "But your eye looks nice!"

The girl hummed doubtfully and arched an eyebrow over said eye. It was the only one with makeup on it which led me to believe that team RWEBY's leader snuck out while she was in the middle of having it applied.

In other news, the younger girl was very, _very _pleased when she learned how to arch a single eyebrow.

"See, look at how nice your eyebrow looks," I continued. "Weiss spent time-"

"Blake did it."

"_Blake _spent so much time helping you out. How do you think she felt when you just ran away?"

"You sound like dad," the girl scoffed, poking at the food on her plate.

An explosive sigh escaped me even as I shook my head. This girl could be so _difficult _sometimes.

"Fine," I said, my tone dry. "Stress Weiss out even more and see if she appreciates what a good friend you-"

"_Ugh! _Fine. I'll go back."

"Bring food," I reminded her stoically as the younger girl shoved herself away from the table with a huff. "It'll be your peace offering."

She growled low in throat and started to stare me down over the table top. Given the fact that her right eye had makeup on it and her left one was completely bare, she made for more of a comical image than an intimidating one.

I arched one of my eyebrows in askance and she snorted in response, leaning over the table to gather up food in her arms.

"Next time I sneak out of something boring, I am _soooo _not finding you."

"I'll live with that," I promised, watching as the girl grabbed the entire bowl of strawberries from the table before spinning away.

"I mean it," she called over her shoulder, her arms full of various bowls and plates that I was _90% _sure she wasn't supposed to take. "I'm gonna find someone _cool _to hang out with. Whose name is _not _Enten!"

I shut my eyes and promptly rubbed at them, thanking whatever celestial body, deity or random source of power that found it necessary to throw me into Remnant had at least allowed me to keep my original gender. Being female was something that I very much doubted I could have handled.

Or maybe it was just Ruby.

A shrug of my shoulders served to flush the thoughts from my mind and I turned back to my food instead. _I _didn't have to spend hours getting ready for the Schnee Family Ball and I certainly wasn't going to waste any time worrying over my appearance.

Not any longer than usual, anyway. I'd make sure my hair looked nice. My face would be clean shaven and free of any dirt or grim or food. I was even the brand new owner of a tuxedo for the occasion.

Weiss didn't just buy me new combat clothes when she went shopping with Coco, as it turned out. The wonderful girl managed to get me respectable looking dress clothes without me even being present. That was a win-win, in my book, even if the price tag on the ensemble burned through most of what I saved since starting at Beacon.

That wasn't to say my allowance was meager, of course… it was not enough to live by but at the same time it was more money than I ever had to my name while I was supporting mom and Phoebe with the job at the grocer. The scholarship deal I was offered was rather generous, in fact, because it helped both myself and my family financially. The tuxedo Weiss chose was just a little pricey…

It looked nice, though, and I was certain that it would see use beyond just this one event so I was content with the situation.

A commotion erupted off to my side – one that featured loud voices, angry tones and even a chair that was knocked to the ground – and normally the issue would be put from my mind. It wasn't my place to involve myself in conflicts between people I didn't know.

The problem, though… The reason I _did _minutely tilt my head toward the fuss, was because I knew these people. I also knew that we weren't exactly on the best of terms. Wariness gathered at the edge of my consciousness.

"-can't be serious," Pyrrha Nikos was saying, her voice incredulous. "After what he did to you?!"

I heard Jaune's voice respond, quieter and too difficult for me to make out. If only Blake were here – that girl could hear just about anything.

"He's lied to us before and he'll lie _again_. He's only in it-"

JNPR's leader responded again, still quiet though the tone of his voice suggested… frustration? He was either frustrated or resolute. I couldn't tell entirely, not without hearing what he said or seeing his face. Both the blond and the red head were facing away from me.

Nora and Ren were there too, however, and both of them were facing me. They were frowning.

Of all my classmates, those two were by far the most difficult for me to analyze. The most difficult for me to observe.

Nora was always strangely happy. She flitted from class to class with a jaunt to her walk and a bounce to her step. A smile was almost always on her face and a whimsical thought on her tongue. She was almost _oddly _happy. Almost _too _carefree. Yang couldn't even hold a candle to her and the blonde was one of the most laid back people I knew.

Ren, however, was almost the exact opposite of his partner. He wasn't negative, not as far as I could tell, but emotional displays were incredibly rare for the boy. His thoughts seemed permanently grounded in neutrality and the words he shared with those around him would almost always feature a realist's point of view.

An eternal optimist and a stoic pragmatist.

It wasn't until I learned that they grew up together, both of them without parents, that the mystery that was Nora and Ren clicked for me.

They balanced each other out.

Nora was the optimist that the emotional mind needed to survive in Remnant and Ren was the realist that the physical body needed to stay alive.

I thought I saw myself in the boy, even, but where my drive to survive was left unchecked until I met Ruby and Yang, Ren's would have been countered and balanced by Nora's carefree attitude.

It made me wonder what I would have turned out to be, if I had someone like Nora to keep me in check. To remind me that I was still a human being and that other people shouldn't be manipulated like chess pieces.

I guess I'd never know.

Well, that wasn't quite correct. I _did _know. My old self knew that. I just needed to become accustomed to thinking that way again.

"-sincere enough to me," Jaune said, finally loud enough for me to hear him as the boy spoke over Pyrrha's voice. "I'm gonna give him a chance."

I stilled and, when Nora glanced my way, promptly looked back down at the table in front of me.

'_What?'_

My efforts to get back into JNPR's good graces were largely derailed when I nearly killed Dusk yesterday. I never got to try and help further his skill with his shield. Never got to improve upon the basics Pyrrha instilled in him.

Frankly, I thought I would have to start over. I even planned on offering up my Semblance to help him with his – I did not know what it was and Ruby informed me that the blond didn't either. I couldn't detect a Semblance being activated but… at the very least I could detect the movements of his Aura so that if he _did _manage to utilize it, I'd know how he did it.

Maybe.

I could only 'feel' someone's Aura by placing my own in close proximity with theirs and usually that involved physical contact. Short of spooning him – which I was _not _going to do, regardless of how much I wanted to end the hostility between myself and JNPR – I could only track the movements of his Aura in a very small region of his body.

Movement on the other side of my table pulled me from my thoughts and I glanced up from under my fringe – _'Is my hair really that long now?' _– to find Jaune placing himself opposite me.

Studiously, I avoided looking at the rest of his team because I _knew _that would only cause trouble. Slowly, I lowered my fork back down to my plate and irritably flicked the brown hair out of my eyes.

He said nothing, though, seemingly content to hold eye contact with me.

I blinked. "Jaune," I prompted. "What's up?"

He took in a deep breath and slowly placed his hands on the table, leaning forward ever so slightly. The high, narrow windows that lined the dining hall cast him in a background of shining sunlight whereas I, sitting between the windows, was left in the shadows.

'_How quaint.'_

"Ruby has been telling me to do this for a month now but I didn't want to listen to her. You hurt my team, Enten. And I know I'm not blameless here either," he continued quickly when my lips sank into a frown. He shook his head. "I know I'm not completely innocent. I did a stupid, short-sighted thing but I've made my apologies for that. You made your apologies too, but words are cheap."

He paused and started to glance back toward his team. The blond stopped himself short of looking back, though, and instead turned back to me.

"They don't like that I'm doing this. Pyrrha wants nothing to do with you. Nora wants to do… physically violent things to your legs and Ren just wants to forget you exist. Me coming over here pretty much flies in the face of all that and they probably aren't going to be happy with me for it but…" He swallowed and met my eyes again. "But I'm taking a chance, here. Ruby says you want to make amends and I trust her. So, do you make up for going behind my back?"

The boy extended his hand across the table, a neutral look on his face.

He was offering to forget about my deception, then? No… no, not _forget_ but at least he was willing to give me a chance to prove myself to him and, by extension, his team. That was more than I'd been offered previously and I was more than willing to take his offer so that I could avoid forcing the issue like I did in yesterday's dueling class.

I reached out with my right hand, the scar on my forearm bared for all to see, and clasped hands with him.

"Meet me out by our weapons lockers," I said, starting to clear up my plate. "I have an olive branch to offer you, if you're willing."

"Uh," he stammered, his eyes wide and darting back toward his team. Gone was the serious front that the blond presented just a few seconds before. Evidently my offer took him by surprise.

"They're welcome to come too," I assured him. "I don't think they'll let me out of their sight if I'm with you anyway."

"Oh," he said, his shoulders relaxing. "That's good. Uhh, yeah, I'll just go tell them and…"

"Meet me by the lockers," I repeated.

The boy nodded and without any further conversation, pushed himself away from the table, already pacing back toward his team.

I watched him go, turning away only when he reached his teammates.

It was time I started to mend what I broke.

* * *

_A few minutes later – Beacon Academy weapons storage_

"What's up, Champ," Coco's voice sounded from behind me as the door to the room opened. Immediately, her heels started to _click _across the floor in time with her steps toward me.

I grunted and turned back to my locker, having just secured the last of my leather armor. Next came the hard part. Ultimatum itself.

The second year scoffed as she stopped behind me. "Don't look so disappointed," she cooed. "What happened to my favorite schemer?"

"Don't patronize me."

"Then don't ignore _me_."

I exhaled, annoyed, and turned about to face the girl. She was in front of me now and sporting a minute scowl on her face.

"Noted," came my response. "No longer ignoring."

"Something seems different about you, Champ," the girl said slowly, eying me over the rim of her dark sunglasses. Idly, she adjusted the scarf about her neck. "Ah! I know – you were never this much of an asshole to me before."

"Sarcasm doesn't suit you."

"Anger doesn't suit _you_."

"What do you want," I bit out, annoyed and frustrated that the girl chose _now _of all times to show up. She even had the gall to act like she hadn't just left RWEBY out to dry in that last, infamous hierarchy meeting.

"Well," she said slowly, drawing out the word as she arched an unimpressed eyebrow. "I _was _going to warn you about a little… hierarchy drama that might be headed your way but…"

She trailed off, her lips quirking up into a smirk when my eyes narrowed.

"Adel-"

"Ah-ah-ah!"

"…Coco. _What. Do. You. Want?"_

"Is it too much to ask for my Champ to be nice to me," the girl cooed, placing a hand on my chest and doing her best to look coy over the top of her sunglasses.

The annoying part was that she was doing a frighteningly good job.

I exhaled again and rubbed at my eyes, my free hand taking hers away from my chest as I did so.

"After you left my team to Rod's tender mercies," I asked, my voice laden with sarcasm. "Yes. Yes, I think it is."

"Oh come on," she cooed again. "Here I am, offering you information and you just reject me outright? Where's the schemer? The pragmatic plotter? Where's the Enten I know?"

"That Enten- _I _won't forget about you putting my team-"

I stopped suddenly, not because the conversation was disturbed or because JNPR finally arrived, but because a realization hit me, then.

I was being an utter and complete hypocrite.

How could I expect JNPR to forgive and forget after I caused their leader all sorts of trouble at the hands of Cardin and his team while at the same time refusing to forgive Coco Adel for looking after her own team's interests before mine? Wasn't that the _exact _same thing I did when I went about sabotaging Jaune to keep JNPR down?

Apparently, I was learning what it was like having the shoe on the other foot.

Admittedly, I did not enjoy the experience.

"Fine," I sighed, rubbing at my eyes once more. "Fine. I don't think you're being sincere and I know you have some kind of ulterior motive but… _fine_."

She hummed low in throat but remained silent, instead eying me from over her sunglasses again. This time it wasn't a coy look or an unimpressed stare… it was a little confusion mixed with what I thought was a whole lot of interest.

"You're different," she said at length, circling me once and stopping again in front of me. "You never would have given up just like that. Not my Champ. Not after what I did to your poor, little team."

"Yes, well, your _Champ_ has learned a lot since we last spoke."

"Ohh," she sighed. "Did those silly girls get to you with their feelings? I _knew _you'd lose your edge-"

My nostrils flared and my eyes narrowed. She was a fool. A fool that reminded me heavily of myself. "Don't _even_ go there."

"Go where?"

"You know _exactly _where. There's nothing wrong with realizing people are more than pawns."

"Are they? When you have a faunus on your team it's hard to feel any sympathy for the people that blindly hate her. They become threats… and threats must be dealt with. But you wouldn't know anything about that, right Champ?"

"I know more than you might think," I snapped.

"Oh, right," she tittered. "Your family. I forgot about that – such a convenient excuse when uncomfortable questions get thrown your way. After all, why would a boy that doesn't hang out with any faunus here know of their day-to-day struggle?"

"Adel," I growled, low in my throat. "If you-"

"If I what," she wondered, placing a finger on her chin. "If I ask you why your team huddles around Blake like _my _team does around Velvet? If I wonder why Blake's _bow _is… more animated than a little, innocent bow should be? If I do those things? Is that what you meant? What'll you do then?"

My nostrils flared with the rush of air I channeled through them but I held my tongue. I was in a losing situation and we both knew it – she had dirt on my team and I had none to counter it.

"_I _know what you'll do," she whispered, leaning up so that she could speak directly into my ear. I flinched away instinctively but her hand caught my chin and forced me to keep still. "You'll take me to the Schnee Ball tonight. I've heard you meet the most _wonderful _people there."

The door swung open then, admitting a loud and noisy team JNPR into the locker-filled room. It made for a jarring transition and the quartet stopped at the doorway, their expressions a mixture of surprise and, in one case, the usual bitter anger.

"Oops," Adel exclaimed, planting a kiss on my cheek. "Looks like we were interrupted! See you tonight, _Enten_."

I forced a grin onto my face because she arched an expectant eyebrow over her sunglasses as she backed away and waved at her when she did, struggling to control the anger slowly building up inside of me as I did so. That done, I watched her turn and flounce out of the room with a muttered apology to JNPR, apparently satisfied with the conversation's results.

"Ahh… we could've come back in a few minutes…"

I exhaled again, only just managing to calm myself sufficiently enough to say: "No. That's okay. Ad- Coco and I were just… catching up."

Jaune shrugged. "Alright," the boy vocalized slowly, somewhat hesitantly, as he made his way to his locker. The rest of his team imitated him, retrieving their own weapons because apparently I was enough of a threat-

'_Calm down. Don't let Adel ruin this.'_

Silently, I turned back to my locker and extracted Ultimatum from it. The pristine white and blue shield gleamed in the light of the room and I felt some of my frustration leave me. Fighting was so much simpler than navigating through social bonds and dangerous conversations. Either you won, or your opponent did.

"So," Nora chirped and I turned to find an awkward grin on her face. The girl probably wasn't doing well with the silence enveloping the room. Admittedly, I was not fond of it either.

"I didn't know you and Coco were together," she continued.

'_Neither did I.'_

"It was a recent thing," I said, a small smile on my face.

"Well _I _think you guys are cute together! And she's _super _pretty. Bow-chika-wow-wow!"

I laughed genuinely, the girl's humor was something I desperately needed after that conversation.

"Yeah," I agreed, a sardonic smile on my face. "Lucky me."

* * *

**A/N: **So, I'm writing this early because I have a few things to mention and I know I'll forget them if I put it off until next Friday. That said, I'm fairly certain that I know what I'll say in my author's note anyway, so here goes:

This chapter was a doozy. I underestimated how much I was going to write. You guys are awesome. Coco is evil! Nora is funny. Ruby should just suck it up and deal with Weiss' stress. You guys are awesome. Enten just got out-manuvered. You guys are awesome.

But no, seriously, you guys are awesome. The fact that some of you are probably reading this on Super Bowl Sunday proves that.

_Anyway_… I wanted to let the lot of you know that I've been revising previous chapters of the fic to retroactively write in some story elements that I missed at the time. Nothing major, just little things. Subtle hints, stuff like that. Honestly, a lot of it is a grammatical error or two I missed here or there. The reason I'm telling you about this is because _one _of those revisions _is _rather major.

Namely, **Enten's purple Aura** makes an appearance during Weiss' chapter (Chapter 22). I can't believe I missed it at the time I wrote the chapter but I am only human… mah bad! Too busy trying to make the fight epic for you!

So, that said, I'll leave this next part for the usual review Q&amp;A, something I generally do the day I post the chapter.

Guess what mutha truckas! It's Friday. Q&amp;A is a-go!

**Name-Change: **First off, thank you. The review you responded to hit on a lot of the negative aspects of this fic and I let that get to me until you stepped up to knock some sense into the reviewer (and me). You served to remind me that, while there are negatives with Reiteration, there are also positives… and focusing on those positives is what's important. So thank you! I truly appreciate your kind words. Now, as for your original review… I'm estimated 15 chapters but my guess is that'll turn into thirty or so. And you preempted me by a chapter on the hierarchy front, of course Adel is never far from her champ haha. Thanks for your review!

**BrokenNotion **and** MrtheratedG: **Enten's pairing is a canon character. Thanks for your interest!

**EveBlaze14: **No one has met Penny… yet! Thanks for your review!

**Thelastsoul232: **With renown comes power and money and with money comes power and renown. Pyrrha has more of all of those things than Enten does. You raise a good point in bringing up the maidens too, when I wrote in Goodwitch's reaction to Pyrrha nearly killing vs Enten nearly killing, I didn't take that into account but it makes sense. Thanks for your review!

**Themetaduck: **Can you expand upon that? On Enten slipping up/making a mistake. I like where your review was headed but didn't quite follow the last part. Thanks for your feedback!

**Conchamp1998: **The programming/techy details will be a reoccurring theme in the story, no worries Thanks for your review!

**Eclipse: **Enten's pairing is in that list you posted in your last review. I think that was just vague enough to be frustrating right? Does that make me an asshole? Hah! Thanks for your review!

**DarkLord98: **Bronze feels like a nice taste before we hit silver and, eventually, gold Thanks for your interest!

**Smithrooks: **Indeed. The fire beam is insanely powerful but also insanely costly… and the maiden's magic can probably emulate it _at no cost to the user_. We're gonna have some fun with those magical powers… Thanks for your review!

**Riero: **Currently, Emerald (and by proxy, Cinder and co.) are the only ones outside of RWEBY that know about the whole 'taking aura' thing. Ruby never told anyone so no one else learned. Jaune, if he noticed it last chapter, probably assumed it was a function of Ultimatum that took his aura. Thank you for your kind words – I knew the genre was going to be tough when I delved into it but that challenge is what makes this so interesting – and thank you for your review!

**5 Coloured Walker: **Dies? Bruh, the only way this dies is if I become somehow unable to write! Thanks for your review!

**TheMAO17: **I like that comparison, namely because you left open the possibility of change by specifying Walter White died because he kept acting the way he did. Where will Enten end up indeed? Thanks for your review and it's good to see you back!

**Tdychko: **I always saw Weiss as a finesse fighter that pulled off graceful movements extreme enough to leave her opponents dumbfounded. Glad you liked her characterization! Canon will be altered (more than it already is) by the time we get around to Mountain Glenn in a few chapters and completely unrecognizable after that… or at least that's the plan right now! Thanks for your review!

To my **other reviewers**: Thank you for your thoughts, your kind words and your feedback. I read everything you have to say and I value each piece of advice/criticism/praise that I get. Thank you!

Till next time…

-Phailen


	33. Chapter 33

_Several hours later – Week 17, Team RWEBY's dorm_

"So, lemme get this straight," Yang started, breaking the silence that was weighing heavily on team RWEBY's shoulders. She crossed her arms, bared by her off-white dress, and allowed a frown to develop on her lips. "Coco is forcing you to take her to the dance by using Blake?"

"In a nutshell," I confirmed from my position across the room, where I was leaning against my bed. Along with myself and Yang, Blake, Ruby and Weiss were arrayed around our dorm, all in gowns and dresses of varying colors and intricacy. Weiss' was pure white, inlaid with minute snowflakes and featured some of the most detailed lace around her collar and arms that I'd ever seen before. Ruby, on the other hand, decided on a simpler red and black outfit.

Another span of silence overtook us after my statement though I thought this one was more speculative in nature than it was distressed. The girls needed time to absorb what I just told them just as I needed time to become accustomed to the situation as well.

Coco was in a good position here, a position of power. Of dominance. She was in much better standing with our hierarchy, thereby closing that avenue of retaliation. She wasn't breaking any school rules either, so going to the Headmaster was out.

After all, coming to the man with an argument like 'she's making me do something I don't want to do' was not only childish but useless as well. What could he do? Reprimand Adel for being an asshole?

No, Headmaster Ozpin had more important things to worry about than schoolyard quibbles.

"So… are you taking her," Ruby asked, scowling.

I shrugged. "What else can I do but play along?"

"Blake could come out as a faunus," Weiss suggested airily. The statement earned her a displeased grunt from Yang.

"What," the girl continued, ignoring the blonde's glare and instead speaking to Blake directly. "There's nothing inherently _wrong _with being a faunus. At most, you might have to worry about being bullied by other students but do you honestly think we'll just let that happen?"

The girl slowly shook her head, fidgeting with the pitch black choker she was wearing. "It's not just being bullied. There's more to it than that."

"Well, what-"

"Blake doesn't want to do it," I said, garnering an annoyed glance from Weiss. "Besides, it's not like I'm going to be entirely passive, here."

Because Coco Adel happened to be on team CFVY, a direct rival of team ONGE in second year. The very same team who, as it just so happened, took in CRDL this year.

"I'll help you kick her butt," Ruby muttered, cross. "I thought she was nice and everything, helping us out with all that information and stuff…"

"She's a leader, she-"

I abruptly shut my mouth and swallowed heavily, wishing I never started that sentence to begin with but apparently my jaws were eager today.

'_Damnit.'_

"What do you mean she's a leader," Ruby asked, her eyebrows slack and her mouth hanging open ever so slightly. She was concerned. Or worried. Probably both.

"Uhh, she directs CFVY," I responded though the tone of my voice made it sound more like a question than the confident statement I was going for.

"What he means," Weiss sighed. "Is that, in his opinion, leaders need to… to, uh…"

"Let go of their humanity," Blake offered, sending me a sympathetic smile.

"Nothing so severe," I said quickly even as Yang visibly bristled and Ruby groaned. "I just meant that team leaders need to get their hands dirty sometimes… if that means using a younger team as a scapegoat in your less-than-perfect hierarchy then… so be it."

The tension in my blonde teammate's posture fled and I allowed myself a relieved sigh.

"Maybe Coco," Yang said, reflexively moving to run a hand through her hair and stopping at the last second. Her blonde locks were twisted, looped, turned, tied and uplifted into one of the most intricately assembled hairstyles I had seen. It must have been the reason she ran into town this morning.

"But not Ruby," she continued emphatically. "_She _understands that kindness wins out over cruelty, always."

I wanted to argue further but I knew it would be an exercise in futility. Coco's move to have team RWEBY take the fall for her was, quite frankly, an incredible example of forethought. I was quite certain that the girl never planned on using Blake's faunus status against us from the very beginning but still, that she was sharp enough to see team RWEBY might just take some negative attention away from her team within a few weeks of the first semester starting was impressive.

The girls might have other words to describe it but it was an expertly crafted plan either way. I would not call it cruel, rather, logical. Rational. It made sense and it was Ruby's spontaneous bursts of empathy that made Coco's use of team RWEBY as a scapegoat possible.

Just like my ruthless tendencies, the girl's big heart was a double-edged sword.

"So," I started, drawing the girls' attention to me as I raised myself off my bed. "I can see you still have some preparing to do for the ball – I'll leave you to it."

"Where're you going," Ruby asked, excited. Her eyes were wide and both eyebrows were arched. If I wasn't mistaken, her tone was filled with hints of longing.

'_Poor girl,' _I thought even as a smile crept up on my face.

"Take the dishes back to the dining hall, would you," Weiss said even as she turned to face Ruby. "As for _you_, your adventure earlier cost us valuable time that could've been used to wash your hair. We can't do that now – it'll never dry in time – but we can see to your nails. They are absolutely filthy! Do you even _use _utensils?"

"Nooo," Ruby moaned as Weiss dragged her by the arm to our bathroom. The younger girl seemed more resigned than upset, though.

"Is she putting on a show," I asked the room at large once RWEBY's R and RWEBY's W were out of earshot.

Yang laughed. "Nope. She likes the attention 'cause she doesn't know how to do it all herself and she loves looking pretty but the actual process of getting dressed up? There's nothing worse on the planet to her."

I snorted even as I started to gather up the plates and bowls that were piled on one of the two reading desks in the room. Evidently, my hunch was correct: the rest of team RWEBY was hungry and sending Ruby back with a 'peace offering' worked.

"Are you going to do anything about this?"

"About what," I responded, glancing toward Blake. I extended my finger toward the dishes in front of me. "About these?"

The faunus shook her head and I took my finger away from plates and bowls.

"Coco," she said.

"Oh. Yeah, I am."

"No one's gonna get hurt, right," Yang asked over her shoulder while she fished around in her jewelry box.

"No. This is more of a long term strategy. Nothing overly noticeable or detrimental to Coco or her team. Not immediately, anyway."

"Alright."

Blake and I shared a glance, furrowed brows and frowns expressing our confusion. Yang, not including Ruby, was the most adamant that I stop manipulating my classmates. To see such a change in her behavior, in her reaction…

"So… you aren't worried or mad or even vaguely concerned 'Renten' will come out to play," I asked.

"Huh," the girl grunted, turning to face her partners with what looked to be a necklace in her hands. "No. I trust you."

My mouth moved for several seconds but I could not find the words to express my concern. Seeing Yang Xiao Long essentially write off what I did to Jaune was not something I expected. It was welcome, certainly, but... This was the girl arguably more protective than I was of team RWEBY and, more specifically, her little sister. The girl who, once she made up her mind, could not be persuaded to change it.

Until now. Something big must have happened to her to facilitate this change.

Or maybe I was just over-reacting. My memories of the night where I agreed to stop manipulating my classmates were colored by my negative experience. It might be that she was never too mad at me, I could have very easily just _thought _she was livid with me – something the ease with which the blonde forgave me once I apologized to Ruby supported.

"Is that surprising," Yang asked, her lips curling into a frown and her eyes growing slightly wider. "That I trust you?"

"No," I said quickly. "I'm just surprised you're so nonchalant about me responding to Adel."

The blonde's frown grew and her brow furrowed. She glanced down at the necklace in her fingertips, growing quiet.

Several seconds of silence stretched between the three of us. It was an expectant pause in which Blake and I watched Yang and the blonde herself stared at the jewelry clenched within her hands. Eventually, once her knuckles were white with pressure, she looked back up at her partners.

"This isn't for me," the girl muttered at length. Slowly, she brought up the necklace so that Blake and I could see it fully. It was a slim chain, golden in color, and on it rested a tiny bauble. A charm.

It was a scythe.

"I don't like how close Ruby came to dying when we were in that warehouse with Torchwick and his buddies. You weren't there, Enten, but that woman – Neo… there's not a single doubt in my mind now: she's insane. She beat Emerald and Mercury for _hours_. Hours! I don't know if it was an illusion or not but it definitely seemed real and that…"

The blonde paused, visibly making an effort to slow her breathing. Her eyes narrowed. "That scared me. That she could just up and decide to attack Ruby… to attack us… I wouldn't have been able to stop her. They took our weapons. They chained up our hands. They held us captive while she beat two people to within an inch of their lives and not once did she hesitate in doing it. Not once! Not even a grimace or a pause or a… a… There wasn't even emotion on her face! There was nothing! _Nothing!_"

Despite her best efforts, she was breathing heavily again and when she realized that, she swallowed visibly, piling the necklace into one hand. Slowly, she clenched her fist around it.

"That's why," Yang said, locking eyes with me. "That's why I don't care if you do… questionable stuff anymore. As long as no one gets hurt. As long as you don't knowingly hamstring one of our classmates. As long as the only people you target are people that tried to hurt _us_… I don't care."

I nodded slowly, fully aware of just how serious this moment was for the blonde. To say that probably hurt her and I'd even bet that she didn't really like herself for it either, if the narrowed eyes and scowl were any indication. That she was so conflicted and yet, still so trusting made me want to prove myself worthy of that trust.

"Thank you," I said quietly, stepping forward to hug the blonde about her waist, carefully avoiding her hair as I did so. She, in return, wrapped her arms around my neck.

"Keep us safe, Enten," she said into my ear. "I know there are some things Ruby can't do… Some things _I _can't do… Can we count on you to look out for us?"

"Of course," I responded immediately. "We're all going to retire when we're old and grey. You'll live to see your precious hair fall out."

She laughed – it sounded watery.

"Don't make me cry, dork," she complained, pulling away from me and delicately wiping at her eyes. "Not after Blake spent so long on my eyes."

"Sorry," I shrugged, a lazy grin on my face.

"Sure you are. Don't have you dirty dishes to take care of, busboy?"

"I'll see to them at once, your highness."

She laughed, now grinning widely. "And don't you forget it! You'll be my royal busboy and Blake'll be my royal kitten!"

"Pass."

"You don't have a say in the matter," the blonde said to the faunus, imitating Weiss' public face admirably. "Peasants are here to do my will and nothing more."

The black haired girl shook her head, an incredulous smile on her lips growing wider with every passing second.

"Make sure she puts on matching shoes this time," I said to Blake as I moved by her.

"That was _one _time and I was super tired," Yang protested hotly, her grin now absent and her eyes now wide.

"There was a time," the faunus asked, disbelief coloring her voice.

"There was- No! It was just-"

"Yes, there was," I confirmed, throwing the blonde a smirk over my shoulder. She growled.

"Hey Blake, have you ever heard about the first time Enten and me sparred," Yang asked, her cheeks red.

The faunus looked at me, her eyebrows arched.

"Ah," I stalled, hurrying to gather the dishes in my hands. "Nothing too exciting, just-"

"He said he'd only need ten seconds to beat me and I put him on the ground in six."

A grimace pulled at my lips – that hadn't been my finest moment. I had the mouth that was capable of getting my opponents worked up but I didn't have any of the skills I did today to back it up. A fourteen year-old Yang Xiao Long rather rudely shoved that fact into my face.

"I'd say _at least _seven seconds."

"That's your best defense," Blake asked, her voice dry. "Are you sure you didn't slap her too?"

"He tried-"

"Okay," I exclaimed, balancing the dirty dishes in one hand even as my other reached out for the door. "Enten has to go now. Bye Blake! Bye Yang!"

The blonde erupted into a fit of laughter and the cat faunus – despite the fact that I was staring her down – joined in. The sound followed me until I shut the door behind me several seconds later.

But, despite my burning cheeks, I could not wipe the grin from my face.

* * *

_Hours later – Atlas Territorial Airspace_

The luxury airship was a smooth ride, I had to admit. It outdid even the airplanes of Earth and that was impressive, incredibly impressive especially considering Earth spent decades honing their aircraft to maximize user comfort. Remnant, on the other hand, only started flying commercial aircraft a little over two decades ago.

"And you say your family has a fleet of these," I asked Weiss from my place in a padded, leather armchair. I took a sip of the iced whiskey near my hand again.

'_User comfort indeed.'_

The girl rolled her eyes. "Yes, Enten. Just like the last three times you asked me, my answer is that my family has six of these ships for our personal use. And again, no, my father won't lend one to team RWEBY for _our _personal use. They aren't meant to go anywhere near hostile areas, after all."

"Then why'd they come near Adel?"

"Funny, Champ," the girl in question muttered from her spot somewhere behind me. She very quickly realized that this was going to be a rough ride for her – _'Something I thought would be obvious.' _– and wasted no time in secluding herself to one of the lounges farther back. Evidently she expected me to keep her blackmail attempt from the rest of my team.

"Kindly go fuck yourself," I called over my shoulder, a grin on my face.

"Approaching destination: Spotlight Citadel," the airship's automated guidance system announced. "Estimated time remaining: eleven minutes. Weather advisory: below freezing temperatures at destination: Spotlight Citadel."

Ruby groaned and huddled in on herself – the girl forgot to bring a jacket in all the pre-departure rush team RWEBY underwent at Beacon. Sun Wukong – the blond monkey faunus who happened to be Blake's date for the evening – was to blame for much of it: not only was he late but his less-than-proper attire caused Weiss to fly into a rage that only served to make matters worse.

In the Schnee heiress' defense, though, Sun _was_ severely underdressed for this occasion. He was still in his unbuttoned muscle shirt, jeans and skateboard shoes. The shirt was black this time and the bonehead had a red tie around his neck but…

Well, Weiss was justified in her outrage, I thought.

At least Jayd Grene, Yang's date, was dressed appropriately. Though I never expected any less from him – the tall, gangly, green-haired boy was very eager to please and the fact that he'd worked up the courage to take my blonde teammate up on her date offer hadn't changed that.

'_Let's just hope he can relax.'_

Seriously, the boy's nerves were on full display for all to see. He was fidgety and jumpy – clearly uncomfortable. Even more confusing: he refused whiskey when I offered it to him.

'_Teenagers…'_

My Scroll chimed and I glanced down at it, a frown appearing on my face immediately thereafter.

Evidently Emerald denied another one of my 'software' updates. She was wise to do so, really, because those updates only contained malware that was designed to keep me up-to-date on her activities. I could watch what she did on Beacon's network already and as far as I could tell, the girl stayed true to her word. No one knew about my ability to take and influence another person's Aura.

Of course, I had no way to tell if she spread it around by word of mouth and I thought it was a fair assumption to make that she at least informed her team of my abilities. If only I knew who the other two were… if there even _were _another two.

She stayed in touch with a Scroll that belonged to 'Black, Mercury' and that made sense because the boy was her partner. The only other device with which she communicated belonged to a 'Smolder, Autumn' and I could find no record of that name in the public records of any of the academies.

"Approaching destination: Spotlight Citadel," the automated voice warned. "Estimated time remaining: four minutes. Weather advisory: below freezing temperatures at destination: Spotlight Citadel."

Weiss sighed and clapped her hands, slowly rising to her feet and smoothing out her floor-length gown as she did so. She drew in a few breaths and with each inhale, less and less of the Weiss I knew remained.

The Schnee heiress was ready to put on her performance.

I gulped down the last of my whiskey – it was almost gone now, given I'd been sipping at it for the last hour – and went about locking my Scroll up. A document was on the screen, though, and I hesitated before I closed it…

'_My notes on team CFVY,' _I recognized, having forgot that I left them up on the device after printing them off. They couldn't be written by hand, after all, because handwriting was recognizable, given enough effort.

And, since I passed said notes along to team CRDL, I most certainly did not want to be recognized.

Printing them was a necessity.

Once I had the physical copy of my notes in hand, I left it near the team's normal gathering spot: the bench at the edge of Beacon Academy's campus. Not on the table, of course, that was too suspicious. No, I wedged them against the tree that Dove used for target practice, near the roots.

I even crumpled the paper up and rubbed a little dirt on it – anything to make it look like they were truly lost by chance.

Team CRDL would find my notes, this I knew from my time spent with the bullies when I was coaching them on how to beat our classmates. They would then pass the information along to team ONGE, the second year team in their hierarchy and, as it just so happened, team CFVY's primary rival for the first place spot among second year teams.

ONGE would know every fault, every twitch, every little detail that made CFVY tick. Every unconscious habit in combat – the way Coco always checked her right flank and the way Yatsuhashi was utterly horrible at blocking attacks directed at his legs. They would know how Velvet's nimble fighting style was completely throw off when a loud enough sound hit her ears. They would know everything I knew. _Everything_.

But that was only step one.

I rose out of my seat slowly, meandering over to the window that Weiss stood beside.

Step two was going to be put into action tonight.

Coco Adel was going to try and get sponsors. She would chat up the rich and the wealthy. The people who could provide her team with experience, material or anything else of value.

She would fail, this I knew.

These people were only concerned about what we, the Beacon Academy teams, could do for them. They did not care about our ranking unless we used the publicity that came with that to make a name for ourselves. They did not care about our names unless those names were well known. They did not care and rightfully so – helping out a team of kids because it was a nice thing to do was the very kind of gesture that could get you killed in Remnant.

No, Coco Adel would not be able to sway any influential people over to her side tonight and I was fairly certain she knew that. She would try, regardless, and it was in that attempt where my second step would be put into action.

I needed to guide her in the conversation, guide her into inviting the person she was talking to out to Beacon Academy to observe a dueling session. Team ONGE would be eager to test their new found knowledge against their rivals, after all.

Even better, since Adel's only talking point with her team was the fact that they were number one in second year, she would likely be more than willing to have an observer come and watch a dueling session.

A small smirk pulled at the edge of my lips even as Weiss hummed beside me. A mountain range was coming into view, now, a mountain range that I knew hosted Spotlight Citadel. They were called the Skyreach Mountains simply because they were the tallest of their kind on Remnant.

"Ready," I asked the white haired girl, my voice quiet.

"Quite," she responded without even a glance in my direction. "Will you be able to handle your tag along for the evening?"

"Leave her to me. Talk up team CFVY's dueling sessions when you get a chance too, even if it's just in passing."

"Your retaliation?"

"Quite."

* * *

_Several minutes later – Spotlight Citadel's landing platform_

I strolled off of the airship and onto the landing platform with a cautious edge to my gait and a suspicious glint to my narrowed eyes. The thick, pristine woolen coat hung heavily upon my shoulders and sheltered me from the worst of the cold Atlas night. Underneath the black garment, I wore an equally black tuxedo, complete with a muted blue bow tie and a white undershirt. A pair of dark dress shoes completed the outfit.

Yang whistled lowly as she came to stand next to me, already hugging her shoulders through the thin shawl she brought with her.

"Yanno, if it weren't so _cold, _I might be impressed." The girl laughed and hurried forward, calling back to our transport as she did. "Come on Jayd!"

"Right," the tall boy muttered, dressed in similar clothing as I was, minus the overcoat. He started trailing after his date for the night, fidgeting with his collar and looking rather cold himself. "Right…"

"Pretty sure I prefer Mistral. Warmer there," Sun Wukong muttered under his breath as he stopped next to me. The boy was shivering already.

"Maybe some _real _dress clothes would have kept you warmer."

"Probably," he snarked, grinning when Blake came up behind him. At least _she _had a coat around her shoulders and a pretty, violet dress clinging to her frame.

I arched an eyebrow at her when the girl continued on with Sun, her arm interlocked with his.

She rolled her eyes and adjusted straps of her dress she'd selected for the evening. Her bow, normally pitch black, was purple tonight. It was the first time I'd seen her use a different one – the girl possessed enough to fill an entire closet.

"We will have to watch out for them," Weiss observed as she came to a stop beside me, the elegant white gown nearly glowing in the darkness. The tiny snowflakes littering her skirts actually _were _glowing, I thought. Add to her appearance the heeled, toeless shoes and the light layer of makeup I could see on her face and the girl looked the very picture of an elegant heiress.

She looked absolutely radiant.

"You're beautiful, Weiss," I muttered, taking a good look at her for the first time since we left Beacon's grounds for her family's ancestral home. I turned to face her and adjusted the white overcoat she was wearing – it was slightly disheveled after her exit from the air ship. "Elegant. Radiant."

"Thank you," she smiled genuinely – the first I'd seen on her face today. The white haired girl had taken stress to a new level. "Now, Ruby will have to stay on her feet and Yang is going to have to keep herself from insulting anyone. And, of course, Sun will have to keep himself awayfrom… _everyone _and Blake-"

"Didn't you tell me to stop worrying over things I couldn't change," I asked idly, turning back to face Spotlight Citadel. "It would have been back before the hierarchy meeting. Back when everything fell apart."

She hummed and refrained from answering me, instead turning back to our airship where – I imagined – Ruby was doing her best to hobble onto the landing platform. I was more concerned with the castle in front of me.

It was large. Very large. Tall, narrow towers stood in a foreboding display of power against a backdrop made up of the enormous, snow-capped mountains that Atlas claimed as their own. The Skyreach Mountains completed what would have already been an impressive picture. As it was, the fact that the mountains were simply relegated to the background in the face of Spotlight Citadel spoke leagues of just how impressive the castle itself was.

It was not overly tall, save for its towers, nor was it overly wide, save the landing platforms that circled it. The building itself looked no larger than four or five stories in height and perhaps four times the length of an average house in Vale.

No, what make it stick out was the fact that it was made entirely of _dust_. Its walls were glowing dimly in the night, pure white in color. It was hard to look at, simply because it _radiated _power.

The windows, some tall and narrow, some wide and short and many, many more of varying sizes were all crystal clear. There was no fluorescent glow, slightly yellowed in color. There was no light pollution being shed from them. They were just… there. Ethereal. Other-worldly. Glowing.

The house was its own light source. The power infused within its very walls was what lit up Spotlight Citadel.

It was a statement.

A powerful, _powerful_ statement. Firstly, that the Schnee family had the wealth to make an entire castle out of currency given physical form was a statement of riches the likes of which I had never seen before.

There were no solid gold mansions on Earth.

The Simpsons, of course, did not count.

Secondly, the fact that the house was made up of a very volatile material spoke wonders of just how secure the family was up here, in this remote mountain range. They did not fear an attack. They _knew _they didn't need to fear an attack because who would be stupid enough to attack the company that supplied the _world _with its energy? No, they _flaunted _their immunity to the threats that plagued Remnant by making their home out of something that was dangerously combustible.

The power this family must hold in Atlas… In Remnant… Even now, I could make out mechanical guards stoically lining the walkway from the landing platform to the mansion itself. Hundreds of them, easily.

_Hundreds._

The Schnee family owned their own personal army. I was willing to bet that there was a fleet of airships hidden away in the mountains too.

And that wasn't even considering the power that its members themselves held – if rumor held true, then they were firmly entrenched in the upper echelons of Atlas' military.

'_Damn.'_

Because why _supply _the country when you can _own _it.

"Oh, dust save me," Weiss muttered, a rare frown breaking through her impassive front. I turned to watch the girl even as she retreated behind me. My eyes followed her progress to find her approaching team RWEBY's captain.

Ruby Rose looked absolutely miserable in a dark red dress and heels that were definitely taller than any she had worn before. She was stumbling every other step and, because she didn't think to bring a coat, rubbing furiously at her arms as well.

"Keep your spine straight," Weiss instructed the younger girl, grasping her bare shoulders as she did so and forcing Ruby out of the hunch she'd previously been in. "_Dust! _You're freezing!"

"Well," the shorter girl sniffed, hunching over again. "We can't all be immune to the cold."

"I am not _immune,_" the Schnee heiress denied.

"Close enough!"

"Girls," I muttered, stepping in between them. Weiss still looked annoyed and the fact that I could see that at all was telling; I needed to defuse this. "Let's just have a good time, alright?"

Weiss scoffed and Ruby sneezed.

"Good," I nodded, sweeping my overcoat from my shoulders and throwing it over Ruby's. The girl needed it far more than I did. "Keep that with you."

She moaned, huddling further in on herself and nearly dragging the hem of the coat on the ground – it hung to my knees, on Ruby, it easily reached her ankles.

"Why is this so warm," she cooed. "Why do boys get to be so _warm_?"

"Body hair," I snarked, putting an arm around her shoulders. "Go on now, unless you want to try growing some, I'd suggest you get inside."

I heard Weiss sigh behind me and she looped her arm through one of Ruby's. "Let's just get this over with. With any luck, no one will embarrass me tonight…"

"Sorry, your highness," Ruby grouched. The shorter girl wasn't shivering quite so violently anymore but it was very clear she was still cold – I could hear her teeth chattering.

Weiss frowned. "I didn't mean it that way."

"Seemed like it," Ruby scoffed. Evidently the cold brought out the worst in the normally upbeat, chipper girl. "I d-didn't even _have _any dressy tights before tonight!"

"They're called pantyhose, Ruby."

"Whatever. They itch. And they scrunch up my toes!"

"I think that part might be the shoes' fault," I inserted, glancing down at the high heels.

"Don't even start with those things! My feet are already sore!"

Weiss deflated. "Dust help me," the girl muttered. "Why did I ever agree to this?"

"Potential benefits outweighed the negatives. Your father's backing would mean-"

"I know, I know," she bit out, straightening her spine and breathing deeply again. The Schnee heiress reappeared then and, to me: "I will see you inside, Enten."

"Yeah," I grunted, casting a glance over my shoulder to find Adel just exiting the ship. She had to use the bathroom as we were landing. "You two have fun. Weiss, remember-"

"I will," the heiress said and, with that, she started guiding Ruby toward the mansion in the distance.

"Sorry about that, Champ," Adel demurred, looping her left arm through my right. "Had to touch up my makeup."

"Right," I grunted, glancing at her. "Nothing major – you sure you just didn't want to walk in last?"

"Why ever would I-"

"Because they introduce teams together and us popping in last means more attention."

"There's my Champ," the girl purred. "Should I be worried?"

'_Yes.'_

"No."

She scoffed even as I started forward, turning her attention from me to the pillars lining the walkway to the citadel. Each of them glowed a soft, ethereal blue and bathed the path in an almost otherworldly light that served to make the falling snow even more wondrous.

"You know, I think I might actually believe you," the girl quipped.

"Sarcasm still doesn't suit you," I returned, my voice monotone.

She hummed. "I think I preferred you angry after all."

'_Should've let sleeping dragons lie.'_

"Cold?" I asked instead.

"No," she said, glancing over at me with eyes that, for once, weren't hidden behind sunglasses. They were a pretty shade of hazel.

"Ah," I grunted, a nonchalant shrug of my shoulders accompanying the sound. "Your grip is pretty tight."

Immediately, her fingers slackened around my arm but the fact that she actually listened to me was telling.

The girl was nervous.

"You ever been to one of these things?"

"It's not my first ball," she responded as we reached the balcony upon which Spotlight Citadel's main doors were located. They were large things, each perhaps thirty feet in height and both glowing a pale white. A pair of mechanized guards stood on either side of the closed portal and, if I wasn't mistaken, I saw a larger mech on the other side of the citadel's entrance hall.

"I didn't ask about your balls."

The girl scoffed. "Why, Champ, if I didn't know any better I'd say you just suggested that I was hiding something from you."

More misdirection. More dancing around my questions. Her expression gave nothing away but her answers, or lack thereof, did.

Coco Adel was out of her depth, here. She didn't know what to expect and she was doing her damnedest to hide it. The second year was doing an admirable job of it too and, were I the charitable type, I might've decided to guide her through her first attempt at gaining the good will of potential sponsors and donors.

Unfortunately for her, I was not feeling at all charitable.

These people we were about to meet… they were cut from a different mold than the people Adel knew at Beacon. They did not care about her or her team or the potential strength CFVY could gain from a sponsor. They did not play the same games that the hierarchies of Beacon played, one where teams gave and took in equal measure. These people were not interested in giving, not at all, not until you showed them what they could _take_.

These people were in it for themselves. For their companies. Their families. They were selfish and coming up to them with stories of how strong your team was would get your dismissed readily and easily, of that I was certain.

After all, there were plenty of strong teams on Remnant and just about all of them would be willing to accept aid from a wealthy donor. Why wouldn't they?

No, you needed to stand out. You needed to show them that you were different, that you could help them before they would even consider returning the favor.

Adel cleared her throat as we reached the doors, her way of letting me know just what I was supposed to do with them.

"After you," I offered softly, smiling slightly when the girl straightened her spine and raised her chin, the very picture of self-assured confidence.

Oh, this girl had no idea what she was getting into.

At Beacon, a confident front was often enough to intimidate other students and get your way. Having your team behind you and your reputation hanging over your victims' heads only made getting your way even easier. That was what Adel knew. That was what Beacon taught her.

She knew how to manipulate her _equals_. People that were on the same level as her. People with the same amount of renown – more or less – and the same potential for strength.

The guests within Spotlight Citadel's walls were not our equals. Not even close.

Still, I allowed myself a moment of admiration for CFVY's leader. Even now, knowing what I knew, I couldn't find any sign that she was anything less than completely assured of herself. She was just as intelligent, just as dangerous as she always was but in this case, her inexperience would be her undoing.

"Enten," Weiss called, standing beside Ruby in front of a slightly smaller pair of doors that looked like they might lead to a dining hall or ballroom of some kind. Yang, Jayd, Blake and Sun were clustered around the portal as well. "We decided to wait and enter together."

"Alright," I agreed, pleased with the idea simply because it derailed Adel's plans. She was an adversary tonight, nothing more.

"Your coat's over there," Ruby chirped when I drew near, CFVY's leader still on my arm. The younger girl pointed off to the side of the dimly lit room, toward a door with another pair of mechanical guards on either side of it. Within the doorframe, I could see a room full of cloaks, coats and shawls of all shapes and sizes, just as dimly lit as the entry hall.

Despite the less-than-optimal lighting, it was startling easy to see within Spotlight Citadel. The natural lighting from the dust cast the room and the people within – of which there were only a select few aside from my team and our dates – in a soft light, a light that was easy on the eyes and still managed to provide enough contrast to see clearly.

It was remarkable, really, and more than a little awe-inspiring. The soft glow of the dust shed _just enough _light to see by.

"Well," I muttered as I took in the room fully. "Spotlight Citadel has already made an impression."

"Just wait until you see the ballroom," Weiss said, a minute smile on her face that faded the instant Adel shifted at my side. Still, she continued: "Father fashioned some of the most luminescent dust into chandeliers that shed the most beautiful light I've ever seen."

"It is pretty cool," Yang observed from her spot behind Ruby. "But it's also pretty dangerous, huh? Living in an explosive fortress like this and all…"

"We do not live here," the Schnee heiress said, dismissive. "It is far too cold and far too remote to live here year 'round."

"You got that right," Ruby muttered quietly, her nose still a little red.

"Yeah but it looks awesome," Sun said emphatically, tossing a glance at Weiss before he returned to slowly turning in a circle. "I betcha I can climb that pillar over-"

"You will do no such thing," Weiss snapped, her lips pressed into a firm line. "I will _not _have our reputation sullied because _you _wish to play the part of a vagabond tonight."

"Uhh, what?"

Blake hesitated visibly but, once Weiss glanced her way, took Sun's arm. "Sun," the girl muttered. "You said you'd be on your best behavior tonight…"

The blond sighed. "Alright, alright… There's food in there right? I'm starving!"

Weiss breathed in sharply and turned on her heel, delicately pacing toward the ballroom's double doors in a gait that made it look like she was flowing from step to step. It was even more impressive given the fact that her heels were taller than what she normally wore – the girl was actually as tall as my chin tonight. Normally she stood equal with my shoulder.

"Hello Aqua," Weiss said, her neutral front back at full force, to the woman standing off to one side of the door.

"Wei- I mean, Miss Schnee," the woman responded, winking at RWEBY's W before straightening to watch the rest of our group approach. "So this is team RWEBY-plus-three?"

"Hey! That rhymed!"

Weiss stepped back even as team RWEBY's leader finished her exclamation and placed two fingers in the small of Ruby's back, urging the girl forward.

"Uh, right," she chirped, stumbling only slightly as she stopped in front of the taller, teal-haired woman. "I'm Ruby Rose – nice to meet you!"

"And you as well," Aqua responded, a sweet smile on her face as she raised her hand to gesture at the closed entrance to the ballroom just beside her.

"Yeah, that door's pretty cool," team RWEBY's leader responded, a wide grin on her face.

I heard Adel sigh and Yang, who was just in front me, snicker. Blake tossed an amused smile at her blonde partner.

"Get it," Ruby continued, glancing back at her sister. "Cool?! 'Cause we're in the mountains and it's super cold up here!"

"That's not a pun, Ruby," I noted wryly.

"No but it's still super funny!"

"Ruby," Weiss hissed, only to be stopped short of unloading on her leader when Aqua laughed.

The woman's warm attitude managed to make this otherwise cold, unfeeling mansion a welcoming home. She appeared to be all smiles and laughter, a startling contrast to the other three guests in the reception room with us.

"Come here, sweetie," the woman intoned, gesturing again toward the door. "I need you to line up how you'd like to be introduced."

"Gotcha," Ruby chirped, flouncing – and nearly ending up face-first on the ground – over to the door. "R stands for Ruby and that means I'm first!"

"Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee," the Schnee heiress said, evidently resigned to our leader's antics, as she lined up behind the younger girl. "Enten Melkweg, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long."

"And the plus three," Aqua prompted.

"Of course," the white haired girl answered, straightening her shoulders and smoothing down the front of her dress. "Coco Adel, Sun Wukong and Jayd Grene."

"Wonderful," the older woman hummed as she ran a hand through her long, teal hair. Such an odd color, even for Remnant. "And Weiss – you do look absolutely stunning."

The Schnee heiress' shoulders slackened for just a moment and a smile cut through her otherwise emotionless demeanor.

"Thank you," she said warmly, grasping Aqua's hand and squeezing it briefly before she centered herself again. Her spine straightened. Her hands fell to her sides, not too limp but not too rigid with the fingers splayed just so. Her chin tilted upward and, with one last inhale, she stilled.

The Schnee heiress was ready to party, as it were.

"Have fun," Aqua sang even as the double doors swung open in front of us.

Immediately, my eyes were assaulted with light much brighter than what was present in the entry hall. It did not startle or blind me, though, such was the nature of the glow put off by dust. The chandeliers on the ceiling, some thirty feet overhead the balcony in front of us, shone magnificently and against the darker backdrop of the navy-tinted walls, they looked absolutely stunning in their etherealness.

The floor was a smooth black, either marble or granite I thought, that managed to reflect just enough of the light from the hangings above to remind Schnee guests that they were there. To remind them of just how splendid the building they were in was. To complete the room's awe inspiring extravagance – or grossly excessive wastefulness, depending on who you asked – were pillars inlaid into the darker walls. These were of a lighter color, not as bright or as attention-grabbing as the four chandeliers, but certainly enough to set them apart from the floor and the walls.

"Wow," I heard Ruby mutter from the front of the line, craning her neck to take in the room all at once. The girl started forward at Weiss' prodding and managed this time to step forward without stumbling.

"From Vale's Beacon Academy: Team R.W.E.B.Y., hereafter pronounced: 'ruby'," Aqua exclaimed as my leader started making her way down the wide, sweeping staircase that led to the ballroom floor.

"The R and team leader: Ruby Rose, expert weaponsmith and Beacon's youngest student in over a decade!"

The younger girl waved just before she disappeared from view, too far down the stairs as she was. I couldn't confirm it, but I imagined she was surprised – evidently Aqua did her homework, to name those additional facts about her.

"The W: Weiss Schnee, heiress apparent to Schnee Dust Company, accomplished singer, dancer and duelist!"

_That _announcement drew some eyes, more than Ruby's did, at any rate. I was too far away to see expressions but many of the guests stopped their conversations and looked toward the staircase upon Weiss' entrance.

The girl took it all in stride, though, waving daintily to her observers and gracefully stooping in a fluid motion to pick up the front of her gown as she descended the stairs.

"The E: Enten Melkweg, world renowned programmer and cunning strategist. Accompanying him: Coco Adel, leader of Beacon Academy's Team CFVY!"

"Showtime," I muttered, my tone a little too sardonic for my liking. The announcements and pageantry were a little too over-the-top for me but, given the extravagance of the hall, I suppose I should have expected that.

I pushed the thoughts from my mind and started forward, Adel a half step behind me. My hands were placed in my pockets and my right arm was bent a little farther out so the second year's arm could fit in the crook of it. Slowly, we began to descend the stairs as well.

"The B: Blake Belladonna, avid writer, reader-"

"Come on," Adel muttered when we hit the ballroom floor. She tugged on my arm and began walking toward the back corner of the ballroom. "I see a familiar face."

I grunted in acknowledgement and allowed myself to be led further into the crowd of Schnee guests. They were young and old, beautiful and uncomely, tall and short, thin and obese. Some faces I recognized as those Weiss pointed out to team RWEBY before we left, others I recognized personally – Ye'lo Malamig was among the party-goers, if I wasn't mistaken.

Weiss caught my eye before I moved too far away and nodded slightly, only holding eye contact long enough to see me parrot the gesture before she returned to observing the stairwell with a smile.

Yang was being introduced now alongside Jayd – some of the party guests were watching the stairwell like the Schnee heiress but the vast majority were absorbed in their own conversations or otherwise occupied on the dance floor. After the first several dozen announcements I imagined they became dull rather quickly – the only exception being well recognized names, like Weiss Schnee.

"Excuse me," my date grunted when she tried to slide by an incredibly portly patron. The man's elbow caught her on the arm.

I recognized him. The large man was integral to what team RWEBY wanted to accomplish tonight. He was quite possibly the only person in the room both important enough to demand a guest be removed and sensitive enough to make that demand in the first place.

But that was for later – after Coco Adel was satisfied. If she didn't get what she came for, after all, team RWEBY could potentially suffer.

A flash of movement caught my eye even as my date led me between two large groups of chatting people. One of the guests in the one to my right was waving at me- Ye'lo!

The girl grinned once she had my attention and promptly mimed gagging even as she pointed back to the group of people she was with.

I rolled my eyes, a grin on my face, and mimed my best violin performance for the brunette before Adel noticed I was lagging behind.

"Enten," the girl hummed, sliding my arm over her shoulder. She pointed, subtly, at a corner of the ballroom. "Be a good date and introduce me, would you?

I squinted my eyes briefly – the blue glow emitted from the walls and the white glow from the chandeliers didn't quite reach every corner of the room – before recognition hit me.

Alrmady Alssulb was a towering man with greying hair and a salt-and-pepper goatee. He owned one of the largest steel-manufacturing companies on Remnant, called Al-Steel, and possessed a large amount of wealth and influence in Mistral, where the company was based in the large mountain ranges that were surrounded by wetlands and swamps. I heard it was an unforgiving area and Weiss confirmed that when she went over this man's credentials.

My teammate also mentioned one other important tidbit of information: Alssulb was already sponsoring both Pyrrha Nikos and team MNSN – a fourth year Beacon team that currently held third place in their class rankings. Both of them were big names, larger than both CFVY and RWEBY, and that wasn't even counting the other huntresses and hunters carrying around his brand name in the other three kingdoms. Professionals and students alike.

"You won't have any luck with him," I muttered, dismissive.

"Oh," Adel asked, her fingers tightening around my forearm. "How helpful of you, Enten. It's a good thing you don't have any reason to lie to me, hmm?"

I scoffed and stepped out of the way of a brunette that walked by – the ballroom was rather crowded. "Nope. None at all."

The grimace was promptly removed from my face as she started leading me over to the man in question anyway. It made sense that she suspected me of duplicity, given she was blackmailing team RWEBY as a whole with the knowledge that Blake was a faunus. Normally, distrusting me would be the smart thing to do… but ironically enough, in this case at least, I _was _trying to help her.

And spare myself a useless conversation in the process.

"Mr. Alssulb," Coco stated as she drew close to the man – he'd been watching us approach for the last several moments. "My name is Coco Adel, second year student at Beacon and leader of team CFVY. This is Enten-"

"The point, Ms. Adel," the man asked, swirling the dark liquid in his wine glass; it was being held between two gloved fingers.

"Right," Adel muttered. "I was hoping I could interest you in potentially supporting my team. We'd be happy to wear your brand and spread word of your steel to anyone we meet."

I almost grimaced but instead I glanced at the steel tycoon's companion. She was a similarly statuesque woman – taller than me, even – and possessed incredibly vibrant red hair. The lady was also currently arching an unimpressed eyebrow at Adel and, when she noticed my attention, turned the expression to me instead.

A half smile was offered to her along with an unimpressed lift of my eyebrows. It was very clear to me now that Adel was in over her head here and that was something I thought might happen though not to this extent. I figured the second year would at least be able to see that these people were on a different level than the students she interacted with at Beacon Academy but maybe that was hoping for too much.

These people were all most likely influential by their own merit or because of the people they knew. They didn't need to be sold on an idea or introduced to the concept of sponsoring a team of burgeoning huntresses and hunters because they were already familiar with the concept.

What they needed to know – the _only _thing they needed to know – was what we could do for them.

And in this case, team CFVY – and team RWEBY too, for that matter – could provide nothing for this man that he did not already have.

"And who would you meet that does not already know of my name," the man asked.

"Oh, plenty of people," Adel demurred. "Just last week we did an interview with Lisa Lavender for Vale News-"

"Do you know the name Pyrrha Nikos, Ms. Adel?"

"Ah," the girl hesitated. "Yes, yes I do. She's-"

"And do you know of team MNSN?"

"Yes," Adel stated, this time refraining from trying to elaborate. She must have realized that the man would only speak over her – it was an arrogant habit that I found annoying and, according to Weiss, it was depressingly common amongst the social elite of Remnant. Something about their overly inflated egos.

"I am already lending my support to them. They already spread my name via the Vale News Network. Now, I say again, who would you meet that does not already know of my name?"

The girl hesitated for a moment but recovered admirably.

"I apologize," she said with a slight tilt of her head. "I did not know of your relationships with my fellow Beacon classmates – it was nice meeting you, Mr. Alssulb."

"And you, Ms. Adel," the man said, already turning back to the woman at his side.

Well if that wasn't a dismissal then I didn't know what it was. Adel tugged on my arm again and, in short order, we were weaving our way through the crowded ballroom once more. With every group of people we passed in the eerily glowing hall, pieces of conversations reached us, disjointed and almost unintelligible…

"-he said he was getting a _new _one! And after just buying the last-"

"-heard Griffel Tavla's son is back. He couldn't be prouder!"

"And why wouldn't she? She _is_ next in line to-"

"Alright," Coco muttered, having stewed for nearly a minute while she led me around the ballroom. "What do you suggest?"

"Don't sound too bitter," I needled, smiling when her fingers tensed. "And frowning makes you develop wrinkles earlier in life."

"Just like refusing to cooperate will get your faunus outed."

"Tch," I scoffed, sounding far too much like Legion D in my mind. "Testy."

"Enten," the girl said lowly, angrily.

"Alright, alright… Let's go talk to that woman over there, the one with the wonky hair."

"Her," Adel spat, her voice still hushed. "She barely has two coins to her name."

"Relative to the rest of the room, sure, but those two coins are a fortune to us. She might be a small fry but you can't exactly expect to impress the big players unless you have a big name to go along with it… And guess what CFVY isn't?"

The girl stayed silent for seconds longer and I pulled her out of the path of a large man before she decided to speak.

"I was right, earlier," she decided through narrowed eyes. "I like you better when you're angry."

"I believe you just don't like being at a disadvantage."

"Let's go," the girl grunted.

"Oh, you don't wear defeat well," I sniped even as I matched her pace toward the woman I pointed out earlier.

"Neither did you," she observed.

"True enough," I allowed. "But that was then and this is now-"

"Woops," a rotund woman exclaimed, backing away from me. "I'm terribly sorry, child, I didn't see you there!"

"No worries, ma'am," I responded, smiling once the shock wore off from being elbowed. "No harm done, no drinks spilled or food lost. Crisis averted!"

"Crisis averted," the woman returned happily as she turned back to – wouldn't you know it – Ye'lo Malamig.

"So tell me what you were saying about Tavla again," the woman said to one of her other conversation partners, one Adel and I could not see, given her body blocked our view. "A new mine on his land? That man is well overdue for some good fortune!"

I nudged Adel forward again with my arm. "Let me do the talking this time."

She noticeably tensed and shot me a smoldering look out of the corner of her eye.

"If you so much as say one bad word about me. About team CFVY-"

"Oh calm down. If I did that then you'd out you-know-who."

Besides, trying to directly ruin Coco Adel's reputation was too ham handed for me. Better she unwittingly do that herself.

"Remember," the girl muttered into my ear, a smile on her face. To anyone else it might look like an intimate exchange of words. "You're here for _me_. Not your team."

"Of course," I returned with a smile. We were nearing the woman I pointed out now.

She was of short stature, lean and possessing an almost porcelain kind of beauty. It was a disarming look, I could tell even before speaking with her, one that was only hindered by the… beehive atop her head.

Her name was Morgana Blut and she was something of an oddity as far as a potential backer for a team of soldiers was concerned.

She owned a line of hair care products.

Huntresses and hunters weren't exactly considered prime targets for any kind of beauty care products because of what they did but this situation was special. Blut had recently developed – as Weiss said it, air quotes included – a 'battle-proof' line of products. She was without anyone to help her market it and, as far as the Schnee heiress and I could tell – the easiest sell in the room.

"Ms. Blut," I called when we approached her, a welcoming smile on my face. "My sister _swears _by your product line and it would be remiss if I didn't thank you for that – you managed to reduce the amount of soaps and conditioners and shampoos and… who knows what else in my bathroom by more than three-quarters!"

The woman's smile, present since I mentioned my faux-sister's obsession with her products, grew wider. "Happy to help, young man. But I doubt you came all the way over here just to thank me…"

"Sorry, Enten Melkweg," I said, offering her my hand. "This is Coco Adel and no, of course not. You see, I believe we can help each other out. You have a new product line in need of a face and I, as it happens, know just the face for the job."

"My new product line hasn't been released yet," Blut hummed, her eyebrows slackening. It made for a wide-eyed expression that almost made me drop my guard.

Almost.

"On the contrary, it _was _released in your home country just two days ago. Limited distribution only."

"Smart boy," the woman allowed. Then, to Coco: "You would do well to keep him."

"Oh," the second year sighed, glancing up at me from under her lashes. "Trust me, I know…"

"Business now, time for that later," I reminded her, the smile on my face starting to become strained. I could _not _act well enough to feign affection for Adel. Not convincingly enough to fool this woman, at any rate. I needed to get the conversation back on track.

"So, your product line," I continued even as Blut laughed behind her hand, delighted.

"My product line," she parroted once she calmed, adjusting the navy blue dress adorning her frame. Her pale skin almost seemed to glow from the chandelier's light. "And am I to assume you will be my lucky test subject?"

"I'm afraid my hair is not on the proverbial table," I returned, folding my hands and bowing my head in mock sympathy. "But my companion's…"

Adel stiffened. "You didn't tell me _my _hair was your bargaining chip."

"Men are rarely so obtuse, dear. More likely than not, he thought it would be a nice surprise for you," Blut murmured, reaching forward to take the otherwise brunette second's year lone strand of orange-dyed hair between her fingers. "But you _do _take good care of your hair…"

She leaned back and considered us. Her arms folded under her bust, an action that served to make it appear larger than it really was. That, combined with her slender neck and porcelain features, made for a very appealing sight.

"But why you," she asked, an amused glint in her eye and a perfectly cared-for eyebrow arched. "Why should _you _be the one to market my product?"

Coco shrugged. "My team is first in our year – that means news articles on a regular basis. That means getting farther in the Vytal Festival tournament. That means plenty of chances to show off… because I do love showing off… Perhaps you'd like to see for yourself? I, and my team, duel every Thursday at Beacon."

"Weiss would likely be pleased, too," I inserted before Morgana had a chance to speak.

"Yes," the woman murmured. "I thought I saw the two of you follow the Schnee heiress down to the ballroom floor…" She glanced, once more, at my face and then at Adel's.

"Alright," she decided. Then, she extended a tiny card to Adel: "We can talk about this further at a later date. Maybe I'll even come watch you fight."

"Of course," the second year answered, accepted the gesture with a nod. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Ms. Blut."

"And you, Ms. Adel," the woman said as she turned away. She quickly disappeared into the crowd even as I heard Griffel Tavla's name mentioned again, this time in the same sentence as the phrase 'in need of someone new'.

"See," I intoned as Morgana slipped from view behind an ornate bust of what looked to be a Schnee ancestor. It too, was made of dust. "Nothing to it."

Adel hummed, looking down at the card in her hands. Around us, people milled about, walking to and from destinations that only they were aware of. Some clumped together in groups to gossip or mingle while others branched off on their own. I could not see Weiss from where I stood though I could see Blake dancing with Sun a short distance away. They had quite a clearing around them, given the boy's choice of clothing for the occasion.

"Who is Tavla," my date for the evening wondered, glancing out over the crowd as a whole.

"Dunno," I responded. I slid my right hand, the one on her side, into my pant-leg pocket.

Adel turned her head enough to inspect me. We were off to the side of the ballroom, near a corner where the expansive balconies outside could be reached. Though there were many openings in the chamber, it did nothing to affect the temperature inside of the room. Fall wasn't quite over yet but winter was fast approaching, enough for me to expect a chill where there was none.

"Do you," the girl asked. "I've over-heard his name no less than three times now; and you have too, for that matter. His name never came up in my research, though."

"Funny, that," I observed, spotting Yang sitting at a table with Jayd and Ruby. The blonde looked bored and her date looked… well, I was some distance away from them but I thought the boy was nervous. Over what, however, I did not know. "Sounds like you missed some names."

"Hmm," Adel hummed. "Your hand is in your pocket, probably fondling your Scroll again. Nervous, Enten?"

"Nope," I said, a grin on my face. "Just hot. Wondering why the air isn't cold, given how close we are to the balcony out there."

"A poor attempt at a distraction. A sudden burst of light-heartedness. Your lip will be bloodied if you keep biting it like that."

"Your point," I grunted, legitimately annoyed with myself that she caught me biting my lip. It was a tick I'd picked up recently, one I was trying to do away with.

"You know of Tavla and, further, you don't want _me _to know of him."

I sighed, exhaling largely through my nose. "He's an associate of SDC. Weiss doesn't like him, I don't either."

"Huh," she grunted, a frown on her face. She stepped up to me and continued, her tone doubtful: "So you've met him then? And you aren't interested in him because you don't like him? You're slipping, Enten."

"Am I?"

"All those pesky feelings. Those silly little girls that influence you. Don't let that ignorant heiress color your opinions. Not when subjective nuisances will stop you from becoming stronger. From becoming _better _than you are now."

"Nice speech," I allowed. Once upon a time, I might've agreed. Back before I realized how much the subjective opinions of my team meant to me. "That's not why I don't want-"

I stopped myself abruptly, clearing my throat as I did so. My hand found its way back to my pant leg pocket.

"Oh, no, no, no," Adel tittered. "You never would've been so dull when your team joined my hierarchy."

"HRCN's hierarchy, you mean?"

"Don't change the subject," she smirked. "You don't want me near that man, not because you don't like him, no… You want to use him to support _your _team, don't you?"

I clenched my jaw and fisted my hand in my pocket. Her smug tone was severely grating on my nerves.

"Enten," the girl cooed, reaching up to place a hand on my cheek. She directed my gaze down at her. "Support for _me _is support for you. Don't worry… I'll take good care of you and those little girls. But only if you work with me… if you don't, well, Blake might find herself-"

"He's the man that handles transportation for the SDC," I hissed, roughly grabbing her about the waist and pulling her close to me. The next part, I spoke quieter, into her ear: "He feels strongly about his first born because the boy has courage and a penchant to speak his mind in spades. He also just found a new mine on his land in need of a foreman… Said new mine is filled with some kind of new metal – metal that I planned on using for-"

"For my team," Coco muttered into the side of my neck. "How _thoughtful!_"

"Yeah," I said, expressionless. "That."

She pulled away from me, planting a kiss on my cheek as she did so. She took one step backward, then another, and then a third.

"Why don't you get us something to drink, sweetheart," the girl said, her voice at a normal volume now. "Meet me over by the rest of your team, okay?"

I narrowed my eyes and stepped forward. "I think it'll be best if I go with-"

"Honey," Adel dithered, a sardonic smile on her face. "You can't go with me to the bathroom, despite how much-"

"Alright," I bit out even as several guests sent unimpressed or otherwise amused looks my way. "Alright. Red or white?"

"White, please."

With that she turned and flounced off, stalking deeper into the otherworldly ballroom. She moved between a group of patrons, then another, and – finally – I lost sight of her.

A sigh escaped me immediately and my shoulders drooped. The rigidness in my jaw faded immediately and the angry look was dispelled from my face without any further ceremony. I shut my eyes and rubbed at them for several moments, reveling in the fact that I was _alone _now.

I was never good at deception. That was something Weiss and, to a lesser extent, Blake excelled at.

But thankfully, my part was done.

I removed my hand from my pant-leg pocket and placed it instead in one of the pockets on the inside of my coat.

Where my Scroll _really _was.

I took the device into my hands and immediately went about typing a message up for, and sending it to, Weiss:

"_She's on her way."_

That done, I rubbed at my eyes and looked around for somewhere to sit along the wall. Something close to a curtain or some kind of drapes would be best… I needed to be somewhere that allowed me to have a conversation with someone without letting people know said conversation was happening. The balcony was an obvious choice but those were too open, far too exposed, I needed-

'_There!'_

A wall near one of the ballroom's exits was only sparsely populated with party-goers. There was a curtain that looked like it would normally be stretched across the arched doorway leading to the outer tier of the ballroom. It was bunched up on one side of the opening and looked thin enough for two people to theoretically speak through.

Perfect.

I ambled over to the edge of the ballroom, picking up a glass of white wine on my way. The expansive room was two tiered – the main chamber was the inner tier and the smaller, hallway-esque border that surrounded it was the outer tier. It was from said outer tier that one could go out to a balcony or, presumably, find a restroom.

"Ruby," I called, spotting the girl at the same table at which I saw her sitting earlier. Yang and Jayd were nowhere to be found.

"Enten," the girl said, surprised. "Aren't you supposed to be leading-"

"Did that already. Gotta update HQ. Care to help?"

"Oh," she said slowly. "So you- _oh_. Okay… better than sitting at this table."

"I saw Yang and Jayd there earlier," I muttered as the girl started walking at my side. She wasn't stumbling, now.

"Yang made him dance with her. I don't think she's too happy."

I laughed and offered the girl the wine glass in my hand. "Well, I think that'll be short lived…"

Ruby shook her head and I retracted my hand.

"Short lived?"

"Yeah," I responded, taking a sip of the wine. I thought I was supposed to smell it or let it rest on my tongue too – something like that – but I was a little too ecstatic that our plan was going off without a hitch thus far to care. "I'll tell you over here."

"Behind the curtain," Ruby asked even as we neared said curtain. "But it's colder over there…"

"It'll be worth it," I promised, pacing behind the object and promptly leaning against the wall next to it. There was a small gap between where the solid dust ended and the exquisite white fabric started.

"Woah," Ruby cooed, stopping suddenly and reaching out to touch the curtain. She could be seen from within the ballroom but I was fully obscured. Good. "I think they put dust _in _this thing."

"They put dust in everything."

The girl giggled, releasing the curtain but staying where she was. "I bet they fart dust."

"They leave clouds of expensive glitter behind every time," I wondered, a grin on my face. It was a funny thought, especially when applied to Weiss. "They fart rainbows."

"Yeah-"

"Weiss," Ye'lo's voice came suddenly from the other side of the curtain. Both Ruby and I stilled; quickly, the girl stepped closer to me, out of view of the main room.

The Schnee heiress brought her own conversation partner along after all, team RWEBY's leader would just be there to hear the update, rather than give Weiss a reason to be near the curtain in the first place.

"What are we doing over here?"

"Never mind, Ye'lo," Weiss answered. Then: "Is she on her way to Tavla?"

"Who's on her-"

"Yeah," I said, matching the Schnee heiress' volume. "She took the bait, hook, line and sinker. Thinks he adores his son and believes he just found a new mineral mine."

"Is that Enten," Ye'lo asked slowly. "Is he-"

"Ye'lo," Weiss snapped. "Stay near _me_, please… Thank you." She cleared her throat. "He did find a new mine though the fact that you made her believe he enjoys speaking of his firstborn is impressive. I imagine your acting skills were strained."

"We can't all be a socialite."

"Yes, well, for a plebian, you did well. Who else did you introduce her to and what agreements were made?"

"She tried her hand at Alssulb, first."

I heard a scoff from the other side of the curtain.

"Yeah," I muttered, a grin on my face that Ruby matched. Though my leader didn't play an active part in the plan, she was still in the know, just as Blake and Yang were. The faunus didn't like having other people fight her battles for her but then _I _was Coco's date and Weiss was the one with the connections. Having her actively participate would only complicate matters. "It worked about as well as you might think. She was treating him like an equal, like there was going to be a mutual exchange from the get-go."

"Fool girl… but she had no way of knowing," the Schnee heiress muttered. "Anyone else? I thought I saw you with Blut."

"Morgana, yeah," I said. "Had to convince Adel I knew what I was doing somehow, else she wouldn't take my information on Tavla worth a grain of salt."

"A small loss," Weiss muttered. "I assume you've taken care of her team?"

"They'll be trounced in the next dueling session."

"And you mentioned the-"

"I got Blut to consider sending an observer to the very same dueling session."

"Wonderful," Weiss demurred and, though I couldn't see her, I could _hear _the grin on her face. "See, Ye'lo – all those years I spent learning social niceties and keeping up appearances were useful after all."

"Weiss," I asked even as I heard team JYDE's Y blow a raspberry at team RWEBY's W. "Does Ruby need to suddenly fall ill?"

"No," the girl responded. "You've done well, Enten. I'll start spreading rumors, Ruby should too…"

"I got it," the younger girl responded and I heard Ye'lo emit a startled grunt. "Coco Adel claimed Blake Belladonna was a faunus, right?"

"Right," Weiss stated. "But only _after _the… commotion starts. And there will be a commotion. Tavla is not fond of his wayward son, even less so around my father, given the boy joined the White Fang. Just make sure you spread the rumor as though-"

"As though I just heard it in passing and 'gravely doubt the validity' of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah."

"Good," the heiress sniffed. Immediately afterward, I heard her sigh. "Good. With any luck, we'll be able to destroy Coco's credibility and dispel this notion that Blake is a faunus in one go."

"Wait wait," Ye'lo said. "Coco's threatening you guys? Isn't she, like, in your hierarchy and everything?"

"She is," Weiss responded. "I'll explain later, Ye'lo. For now, I'd appreciate it if you could back me up – the word of the Schnee heiress and one of the Malamig children should be enough to convince people of the truth."

"Is it the truth," the brunette on the other side of the curtain asked.

"Yes," I said. "Coco blackmailed me into inviting her to the ball tonight."

Ye'lo growled. "That's super uncool! And she was gonna say Blake's a faunus? In Schnee territory? That's, like, accusing someone of murder!"

"Well," Weiss said with a dainty laugh. I could almost picture her delicately holding her hand over her mouth. "Apparently there is more than air up there after all."

"Should Yang talk to people instead of me," Ruby wondered even as Ye'lo blew another raspberry at Weiss. The white haired girl probably had spit all over her face by now.

"That's a good thought," I said. "Yang is… she could probably make friends with the Grimm, if she tried hard enough."

"It would certainly be more effective," Weiss allowed, humming in consideration. "But… you're our leader, Ruby, it has more weight if it comes from you."

"Oh," the girl said, her shoulders drooping.

"Maybe take Yang with you," I offered.

Ruby perked up even as Weiss' voice emanated from the curtain again. "Oh! That is a wonderful idea! Yang can help ease her into the conversation and even facilitate the changing of topics to Coco and Griffel Tavla's impending outburst."

"Right. Meanwhile, I'll make myself scarce," I continued.

Weiss hummed. "It is imperative Coco not see you while this is happening – you have been with her all night, after all… foul play might be suspected…"

"You don't have to tell me twice. A break on the balcony sounds nice right about now – it's sort of hot in here."

A moment of silence overtook us then, filled only by the soft music to which people could dance and the chatter of the other party-goers within the inner ballroom chamber. It was a nice atmosphere, not too loud but not too dull either. The ambient lighting that managed to serve as the main light source while still being as unobtrusive as a secondary light source only helped that feeling along.

"Soooooo," Ruby started. "We good?"

Weiss cleared her throat and I heard her shoes start clicking away from the curtain.

"Come, Ye'lo, let us find new conversation partners…"

The brunette's responding chirp was largely lost to the din of the ballroom as she and the Schnee heiress wandered away from us and, suddenly, Ruby and I were left alone again.

The girl sighed. "I still don't like this," she admitted. "But I don't like that C- _she_ blackmailed us in the first place even more."

"It'll all be over soon," I assured her, wrapping one of my arms around her shoulders. She was still somewhat cold. "Even better, we might not have to worry about these rumors ever again."

"Yeah, that'd be nice," Ruby sighed, leaning into my chest. She groaned. "You're warm."

I laughed. "And you're on the hook to spread some news to our fellow party guests."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," she moaned, stepping away from me. "Don't worry – you and Weiss can count on me. Nobody messes with team RWEBY and gets away with it."

"Nobody," I agreed with a nod.

I would- No, _we _would make certain of that. Team RWEBY as a whole would defend ourselves. When one of us was attacked, we would all respond. Even if it required the heiress of Schnee Dust Company to defend a faunus; _we _would respond.

And that was Coco Adel's failing, wasn't it? She expected _me _to deal with the problem. Just me. Not Ruby, or Weiss or Blake or Yang… just me, just Enten. She found out very early on that her assumption was wrong on the flight over here and that should have been a warning sign for her. It should have clued her in to the fact that this night was probably going to go south for her in a very bad way but she either didn't notice – unlikely – or she didn't care.

That sounded more likely to me. Coco Adel, for all her mental agility, for all the time she must have spent planning and researching the party guests, horribly misjudged her standing with the social elite and severely underestimated my team. She wrote off people she deemed too emotional. Too whimsical and impulsive. People like Ruby who, when she saw her teammate in distress over whether or not to go public as a faunus, got over her distaste for manipulative games and willfully played a part in the second year's downfall. Like Weiss, who all but went on a crusade before it was time to leave so that she could make sure Blake was alright.

I realized, now, that Coco wasn't as self-aware as I once thought she was. She was good at reading people, at playing mental games and influencing her classmates to get her way, but she lacked experience. She lacked wisdom.

And because of that, she wrote off my team.

After all, how could four 'little girls' too caught up in their emotions act against her? The only threat she needed to neutralize was me.

'_Fool,' _I thought as I waved Ruby back into the ballroom.

Still, there was a valuable lesson for me to learn here – don't underestimate anyone. Ever.

I hadn't, not yet anyway. Everything I did, every time I manipulated someone, I did it by proxy. I acted indirectly. I was never at risk until I made myself at risk.

A sardonic smile pulled at my lips as I started pacing toward one of the citadel's many open-air balconies.

Maybe that was the lesson, in reality? Maybe the key to staying above water was always acting indirectly. Coco directly attacked team RWEBY and look where it got her… where it was going to get her, rather.

I put the thoughts from my mind with a sigh as I reached the balcony's edge. My hands were promptly placed on the elaborately carved dust handrail. In front of me, Atlas' countryside stretched out and, in the distance, I could just barely make out the ocean.

Raised voices erupted behind me, abruptly disturbing the otherwise peaceful night. Someone was mad.

My smile curled into a smirk and I cast my vision outward again, toward the ocean. Toward the innocent, roiling waves. Beautiful, and harmless in their simplicity but deadly underneath their guise.

'_Just trying to stay above the water,' _I thought as I raised the wine glass toward the ballroom. Slowly, I lowered the object to my lips and sipped again at the liquid within.

I'd never tasted anything sweeter.

* * *

**A/N: **So how 'bout episode 11 huh? (_Spoilers incoming, by the way, skip the next two paragraphs if you don't want to read 'em)_ I know there'll be another episode out by the time this drops but am I the only one who _really _hopes Roman Torchwick didn't just get taken out by a stupid griffin-grimm? Too much annoyingly-awesome behavior to have that man die in such an anti-climactic manner… Though on the flip side, it definitely portrayed just how fragile life is on Remnant well. That and Yang losing the hand. Blake getting stabbed. Ruby nearly dying a few times… All in all, good episode.

Number 12 was the kicker though, I think. Not sure how I feel about Pyrrha dying, but if she lived then that would mean Cinderfall's/Salem's/Whoever's plan with the magic would be at risk.

So quite a few of you had a few choice words for Coco last chapter – I hope team RWEBY's retaliation did your outrage justice this chapter… I certainly had fun writing it (and her).

Also, let me know what you think about the dust castle. 'Cause that has good idea written all of it, amirite?

To mah reviewahs:

**Nemrut: **Well thought-out summary of what Coco stood to gain/lose. I feel as though a mixture of inexperience and her smelling blood over what she perceived as weakness in Enten would lead her to lash out with blackmail. Hope you enjoyed the repercussions! Thanks for your thoughts!

**Victory3114: **That'll be a Remnant exclusive, I'm afraid! Of the books I've read, none quite matched what I wanted Blake to be reading. Thanks for the review!

**XenotheWise135: **Revenge is a dish best served cold. And then again once it's frozen over, in this case… Hope you enjoyed team RWEBY's retaliation! Thanks for your thoughts!

**Name-Change: **You should call him 'Glenn, the Big Red Dragon' haha! As for the shells… they might annoy him. I'm not 100% certain, to be honest, but I know they'll _wound _him at least. As for how much… well, how many bee stings does it take to kill a human? (In other news, Goliaths are probably much more likely to be mortally wounded by a shell or two) As far as the finale goes, not too many holes. Really, having season 3 over is sort of relieving to me, I can let loose without having to worry about staying too close to canon. The tournament date is actually the same, I think it just seems sooner b/c there was no mountain glenn mission… which I'm still on the fence about. But no, shit will go down faster no matter what, haha! Hope you enjoyed the chapter and thanks for your thoughts!

**Badgedbadger: **I wouldn't quite call it incompetence, he's just not an unknown on an unknown team anymore. He (and team RWEBY) are targets now. Less offense, more defense. That kinda thing. Thanks for your review!

**Drake D Zero: **So… there's a long term pairing and a short term pairing. Coco is neither of those but one of the other two in your list is the long term one. That's as much as I'll say, with any luck, you'll see it coming before it hits. As long as I wrote it well, anyway! Thanks for your review!

**5 Coloured Walker: **The color of his aura is incredibly important to the true use of his Semblance. What I can say, without giving too much away because he isn't quite aware of it yet himself, is that the catalyst that made the aura purple is consistent in all the fights where it appeared. Thanks for your review!

**Glenloc: **I've been peppering more of Enten's physical characteristics in throughout the fic. I think I mentioned muscular, a few inches taller than Yang and longish (enough to reach his eyebrows) brown hair. It'd probably be easiest to picture Jaune with brown hair, darker eyes and a larger shield. Thanks for your thoughts!

**Atrile: **Oh, that Enten is still there, always there, lurking just under the surface… He's taken a backseat for the time being but, who knows, maybe he'll reappear in the future? Remnant is not a nice place, after all. The strong survive and the weak are to be used to help them through it. Thanks for your review!

**Phil Black: **I like the insight you have as a writer. Everyone's style being different was something I didn't think of. As for Enten and his fight against humanity (in addition to the Grimm), he grew up with a faunus family. He doesn't see human beings as friends, not automatically, not like Ruby might. I imagine Blake would be similar and Weiss as well (though for her it would be the opposite). Thanks for your thoughts!

**Numero Dos: **No worries, real life happens. No one died (unfortunately?) but RWEBY did get even… and we haven't even seen the repercussions hit yet. Should be interesting to see how Coco's character evolves with this. As for I'm-a-sadistic-asshat-Adam, I agree. He'll get his, don't worry. And lastly, Enten is pronounced 'n-ten'. Thanks for your review!

**Howling Armadillo: **I'm glad I bested your expectations. I've still got some grammartical errors to fix in the last ten or so chapters but those are coming, albeit slowly… Thanks for your thoughts!

**MrtheratedG: **Your review made my day – like, I couldn't stop smiling for about an hour type of deal. I was out and about that day too, I'm pretty sure I looked strange. Yeah, I do this for you guys but I like writing enough to keep it up and your reviews (like this one) make it all worth it. Thank you for taking the time to show your appreciation, I mean it!

**Azariah Kyras: **No fake relationship with Coco, no worries! Thanks for your thoughts!

**To my other reviewers: **Thank you for taking the time to leave me a response – they're encouragement in an electronic format. I read all of them and though I might not respond to all of them, that doesn't mean I don't appreciate every note I get! Thanks!

Well, I'm off to go send some mail to a guy at a place. Till next time!

-Phailen


	34. Chapter 34

_Some time later – Skyreach Mountains, Spotlight Citadel, Outer Balcony_

My fingers were starting to go numb and I lost feeling in my cheeks and ears a long, long time ago but I couldn't bring myself to care. The night was too calm, the scenery too serene, the atmosphere too tranquil out here on the balcony for me to summon up the willpower I needed to return myself to the ballroom behind me. Remaining out here, where there was no one around me, was far more appealing; it was for that reason I had hidden myself behind one of the balcony's inner walls, out of sight of the ballroom. No uninvited guests would disturb my peace. No surprise conversation partners. My team knew where to find me and the frigid air made for better company than the social elite within Spotlight Citadel anyway.

A gust of the very same wind greeted me then and I shut my eyes to enjoy it more fully. The wine glass, empty and alone on the balcony's ledge, rattled forebodingly and I grasped it between my fingers before it fell. It was my only companion out here and I was loath to lose it.

My lips curled into a smile even as my fingers started to spin the glass between them. It rang out hollowly in protest as it moved.

Knowledge of exactly how Coco Adel's night ended was not available to me but I was willing to bet the figure being escorted out of Spotlight Citadel by a quartet of mechs was her. The fact that our plan went off so flawlessly and, even further, that it wasn't _done _going off brought me untold happiness.

If only I could be present to watch the second year dueling class this Thursday… But no, that would be too conspicuous. Logic prevailed against my impulsive desire to watch team CFVY fall.

And fall they would.

'_**Do not**__ fuck with my team,' _I thought, satisfied. Even now, the rest of RWEBY was working to discredit the second year and dispel any notion of Blake being a faunus in one, reputation-killing blow. By the end of the night, Remnant's social elite would know of Adel and her lies. Her deception. She might even lose the interest of Morgana Blut before the woman could see team CFVY be utterly destroyed in the next dueling session.

The only true victims in the entire sordid affair were Fox Alistair, Velvet Scarlatina and Yatsuhashi Daichi, team CFVY's other members. The only way I was able to get Ruby to agree to the plan was to argue that the three of them were hardly victims at all. Adel's reputation would be ruined but as far as the rest of her team was concerned, they would only suffer a bad day in dueling class.

And if that poor showing wasn't enough of a statement to warn Adel off of attacking team RWEBY, then I could only think of one thing more I could do. One thing that was far more permanent and far more unappealing to me.

Besides, the girl hadn't done anything serious enough for me to be contemplating murder. Not yet, anyway. It was only my own personal bias - given she blackmailed _me _and then tried to get one over on my team - that led me to even consider it in the first place.

No, death was a last resort. Too many loose ends. Too many questions. Far harder to manipulate someone into doing your dirty work for you.

"Honestly," I muttered to myself, eying the glass in my fingers as I used my Aura to lift it just above the digits. Absentmindedly, I weighed the benefits of getting another against staying hidden outside. "To think Blake was a faunus – insanity. Pure, untold insanity."

The chalice did not answer me, it only hummed lowly in the mountain breeze to which it was subjected. That was alright, though, for the silence suited me better anyway.

It always had.

My Scroll chimed and I straightened my spine with a low groan, breathing in deeply and flexing the muscles of my back. They woke one by one, resistant to the movement given how chilled they were. Slowly, then, I extended my arm and carefully placed the wine glass back on the balcony's handrail, eying it as it settled on the volatile surface. Once the delicate object stopped moving, I reached into my coat and retrieved my oldest friend.

The display appeared sluggishly under the night's cold embrace but the operating system designed by Ye'lo Malamig's family eventually showed itself before my eyes. My face and torso were lit by a dim, phosphorescent glow even as my eyes took in the information that the Scroll was offering me.

"_It's done. She's cleared."_

Oddly enough, the message came from Yang. It was supposed to be Weiss who informed the rest of the team when it was safe to resume our normal activities for the night.

'_No matter,' _I decided with a smile upon my face. It was done. Blake was safe. As far as the party guests knew, the rumor that she was a faunus was just that: a rumor. All the girl would have to do is keep her ears from moving and she'd be in the clear.

The wine glass rattled threateningly and I reached toward it with my free hand. Such a troublesome object.

"Ugh," I heard someone grunt behind me, on the precipice of entering the balcony's chilling embrace. "What's up, father cold?"

"Emerald," I greeted, my eyes focused on the wine glass as I started to spin it with my Aura, just above my fingers. The soft glow emitted from the dust reflected off of the chalice in an aesthetically pleasing, multicolored hue. Under the night sky, the glow was clearly visible.

'_Ethereal,' _I noted, pleased.

"Not even gonna look at me, huh," the girl behind me asked, her heels clicking across the balcony's surface until she stopped next to me. She too, now, was behind my concealing wall.

"I know what you look like already," I responded, staring out over Atlas' countryside. My fingers snapped up to seize the wine glass at its stem and it rang out shrilly in protest. Regardless, I offered the object to Emerald with my free hand.

She accepted it and, from the corner of my eye, I thought I could see a frown on her face. "There's nothing in here," she noted.

"Tell me," I murmured, turning my head to observe her. She was in a sleeveless dress, dark green in color and had a wide black strip of cloth tied around her midsection that ended in a bow placed upon her lower back. The ornaments she usually wore on her body – the earrings, arm bands and cloth on the backs of her hands – were missing. "What do you think that glass was made to do?"

The green haired girl eyed me for several seconds in complete and utter silence, one eyebrow arched in doubt. She returned her gaze to the glass for a short moment but ultimately directed it back up to my face. Her hair shifted when the wind washed over us with its chilling embrace and I saw her wince minutely.

"To hold wine," she responded, her voice trilling higher toward the end of the sentence. Confusion. Then, she added: "Duh."

"To hold wine," I mused, turning back to look out over the balcony's edge. Atlas' countryside was truly a magnificent sight to behold in the moon's light – it made me want to see it from the top of one of the mountains behind me. "To hold wine… I agree."

The girl was still staring at me, I could see that out of the corner of my eye, but I paid her no mind. Instead, I busied myself with placing my Scroll back into the confines of my coat. The cold was never good for it and I was loath to have something happen to it just because I did not want to deal with the warmth and the people still in Spotlight Citadel's extravagant ballroom. Almost an hour had passed since I first came out here.

"Are you feeling okay," the girl asked slowly, her tone still doubtful. "How many of these have you had? Did the cold finally get to you?"

'_Curious,' _I noted even as my head swiveled over to her again. She was rubbing at her forehead with her free hand now, her brow furrowed.

"Is that glass useless, now?"

Emerald shook her head slowly, still observing me through narrowed eyes. "No… It's fine. No cracks or anything…"

"But it holds no wine."

"It _was _holding wine before, though, right?"

"It was," I confirmed. "But it's not now. At one point in time, it did what it was supposed to do… but now? Now, it's useless, empty."

"And," the girl huffed, eying me with a frown on her face and a single eyebrow arched.

"It is empty," I repeated, slower. "One might argue that I can refill it and, to be certain, I can. But why should I not just choose another glass?"

She shrugged and another wince flashed across her face. "Ugh," she grunted. "Just get another one then..."

"Another glass," I wondered quietly, reaching out to gently take the chalice from her fingers. The digits were warm when mine brushed against them. Slowly, I extended the object over the edge of the balcony. "I agree – this is useless to me now."

"Wait," the green haired girl barked. "What are you doing?"

"Getting rid of this glass."

She shook her head, pausing to breathe deeply. Her brow was furrowed in irritation. "Just take it inside. It's not even yours."

"Why? Why bother with this glass anymore?"

"Because it can be refilled, dork," Emerald snarked, summoning up half of a grin through the pained look upon her features.

"True," I allowed. "But there are countless other glasses already filled, just within the ballroom behind us. Why does this one matter so much?"

"Because it's wasteful to toss it over the edge," the girl grunted, her eyes screwed shut again. She placed one of her hands on the balcony's handrail for support.

"Wasteful," I muttered, eying the glass between my fingertips. "Is it wasteful to dispose of something that serves no purpose to me?"

Emerald huffed and I glanced over at her, finding her staring up at me through narrowed eyes. Her jaw was tense – it was clear to me that she was in pain. "This… this isn't about a glass, is it?"

"This glass has become useless to me. It holds no wine now and, so, I have no reason to keep it. It could be refilled, this is true, but why bother with the effort? Why not take an entirely new glass? One that has wine _now_."

"I think I need to go back inside," Emerald muttered, hunching down over the ledge.

"If one fails in their duties, do they deserve a chance to redeem themselves? If one fails to protect those under them, do they get another chance to do so? If one acts against those in their charge, are they worth-"

"How about you give me a fucking hand," the green haired girl spat, glaring up at me from where she was leaning over the edge of the balcony.

I swallowed, once, observing the wine glass one last time before I slackened my fingers and watched the object slip through them. Gravity immediately took it in an unforgiving embrace and dragged it down, down, over the edge of Spotlight Citadel's balcony and down further still. Farther and farther it fell until, eventually, it disappeared from my view.

The frigid mountain air provided me with the oxygen I needed to sigh deeply one last time before I turned to Emerald.

"All you needed to do was ask," I chided, taking one of her arms and bending down far enough so that she could place it around my shoulders. My spine straightened and, studiously avoiding her forehead, I dragged the girl back inside Spotlight Citadel, into the outer tier of the ballroom, behind the very same curtain through which Weiss and I spoke just over an hour earlier.

The girl groaned and immediately put her head in her hands when I placed her in one of the chairs along the wall. She ignored me even as I stood in front of her, observing, for nearly ten full seconds.

'_Did the cold finally get to you, she said,' _I recalled even as I moved to retrieve a chair for myself. I then placed the luxurious object in front of the one the girl was in and promptly placed myself in its padded leather confines. My hands folded in front of my mouth and I reclined, crossing my legs at the ankle. Silently, I watched the green haired girl clutch at her forehead.

A thought came to me and my hand promptly disappeared behind my suit coat, it reappeared shortly thereafter, my Scroll in hand.

'_Literally and figuratively. Yang would be proud,' _I thought, a smile on my face as I brought the device to bear in front of me. Quickly, I glanced back up at the girl but she was still all but comatose. A grunt escaped me and my lips pursed in annoyance even as my fingers manipulated the device in my lap; swiftly, I had the generic messaging application included on all Scrolls opened up.

Unfortunately, I was outside of Beacon Academy's wireless range and, so, I could not use the more secure application on team RWEBY's subdomain.

"_Curtain call."_

The message was promptly sent to Ruby and Weiss. Blake and Yang would not have any idea what it meant but that was alright, I sent a different message to them:

"_Converge on first two, sans dates."_

That done, I collapsed the device and returned to watching Emerald, my mind spinning. She was sitting up, now, though her eyes were still screwed shut and she was breathing both slowly and deeply.

'_Affected by heat,' _I noted as I placed both of my feet back down on the floor and leaned toward the girl. Her forehead didn't look any different. Not as far as I could see, anyway.

"Why did you come find me, Emerald," I wondered, tilting my head to the side ever so slightly.

She opened her eyes though only just. I could barely make out their vibrant shade of red, given how much she was squinting. Her jaw worked for several seconds but she only ended up swallowing heavily.

"I know it wasn't my sparkling personality," I continued, a wry smile on my face even as I heard a pair of high heeled shoes stop on the other side of the curtain. "And I'm quite certain you didn't search me out for the conversation either."

The girl snorted, wincing when she did so. "Don't flatter yourself," she murmured, cracking a smile even as one hand kept rubbing at the skin of her forehead. "Had I known you'd just rant about a wine glass, I would have waited until you came back inside. Sorry about losing my temper, by the way."

"You learn to deal with tempers when you're on a team with Yang," I responded. "How did you find me, secluded out on that balcony as I was?"

The girl took her hand away from her forehead, shrugging her shoulders as she did so. "I just… saw you go out there earlier."

"I see, I see," I hummed. "So you waited over an hour to come talk to me? Me, specifically?"

"You looked… busy," Emerald said slowly, her eyes glancing toward the ground. "I didn't want to disturb you."

"But you did. You came and found me in a way eerily reminiscent of how Mercury first 'found' me."

Her eyes widened and she straightened her spine – the girl had been leaning forward ever since she recovered from her head pain. Her mouth dropped open and moved but no sound escaped it.

"Mercury found me to feel out my team, Emerald," I muttered even as another pair of shoes stopped outside the curtain. "He revealed more than I think he meant to about his associates in the process… but you're with Ironwood, are you not?"

"I wasn't gonna-"

"And _if _you're part of Ironwood's contingent," I hissed. "Then you would know how close he and Headmaster Ozpin are. You would know that any information you need on team RWEBY can be obtained by merely _asking_."

"I'm not," Emerald denied emphatically, waving her hands in front of her torso. "I wasn't- I mean I didn't find you-"

"Why, then, Emerald," I started, leaning forward. "Why would General Ironwood – because you _do _work for him – send his child soldiers after my team when he _knows _he can ask Ozpin anything he wants? What reason would that man have to do such a thing? Such an-"

"I wanted to ask you to dance!"

"Ah! A da- what?"

My mind ground to a halt and I knew my eyes widened before I could stop them. Of all the reasons- She wanted a _dance_? With me? That was… That was something a teenager would-

* * *

"_I do wear green," she claimed, flashing the cloth on the back of her right hand and gesturing to her top with her left. "But I'd look like a complete eyesore if I wore all green. Plus, my hair is green. That counts for something, right?"_

_She reached over her shoulder and grabbed one of the two longer locks of mint-green hair that she kept well maintained – if Yang was to be believed._

_I was inclined to trust her judgement; hair was kind of a big deal to the blonde._

_Another shrug answered her. It was an idly asked question anyway, meant to get a feel for her personality. For her thought processes. Had she said something along the lines of 'browns and whites are harder to spot when you want to hide in the cityscape' I might've been concerned. She just cared about her appearance, though, like so many other teenagers._

* * *

Something a teenaged girl would do.

The girl was glaring at me now – red eyes on full display – and her fists were clenched in her lap. "Yeah, a dance. Is that so wrong? Can a girl ask a boy she likes to dance?"

"Yes, but I-"

"And can that boy not rant about wine glasses and then accuse the girl of lying to him about who she works for," she ranted, rising to her feet and crossing her arms over her chest. "Is that too much to ask, Enten?"

"No! No. No that's not-"

"Good," the girl decided, a decisive nod punctuating the declaration. "So, now that I've gotten you out of your evil-mastermind funk, would you like to dance with me?"

'_Evil mastermind,' _I thought slowly. What was she on about?

A bright flash of light, jarringly so, given the ambient lighting of Spotlight Citadel, disturbed my thoughts and I looked in the direction of the flash only to see Yang Xiao Long, clad in her beautiful ball gown, holding her Scroll aloft.

Its camera, I noted with a growing ball of dread developing in my stomach, was pointed toward me.

"Oh, that's a good look," the blonde said, a toothy grin on her face. She then widened her eyes and slackened her jaw until her expression mirrored what mine must've – stunned surprise.

'_Not going to hear the end of this one,' _I noted even as Emerald turned back to me, an unimpressed eyebrow arched.

I shrugged in response because what else could I do? I thought the girl was planning something more sinister when she found me on that balcony because I'd hidden myself away from the ballroom so that the only way someone could stumble upon me was by taking a spontaneous trip outside. Given how cold it was, I knew the chances of that happening were slim.

Thus, when Emerald found me and mentioned how the cold must've finally gotten to me, I knew that she not only went looking for me but had some idea of just how long I'd been out there too.

Clearly she was up to something.

"Like asking me for a dance," I muttered under my breath. Stupid. These were teenagers. Not adults. Most of them didn't have agendas. Not like the socialites in the ballroom.

"Enten," Yang sang and I looked over at her to find Ruby and Blake present now as well. Neither of them looked too entirely impressed with me either. "You've got a question to answer…"

"Oh," I grunted, rising to my feet and offering Emerald a smile. Nothing to do now but move on with as much dignity as I had left. "Sure. A dance sounds nice."

"Are you sure," the girl asked dryly. "We could just talk about wine glasses again."

"No," I grunted even as Yang snorted. "That won't be necessary."

"Good," Emerald chirped, sliding her arm into the crook of mine. She started forward then and I followed along silently. The music in the ballroom was slow, at least, so I wouldn't have to make a fool of myself on the dancefloor too.

"New screen saver," Yang muttered when I walked by her. "No! _Permanent _screen saver."

Nothing to do now but move on with as much dignity as I had left… Because I was quite certain Yang would never let me forget about this – mostly because I never let her forget about the train wreck that was her first relationship.

'_All's fair,' _I conceded even as Emerald and I waded into the throng of party goers. _'All's fair.'_

* * *

_Skyreach Mountains, Spotlight Citadel_

"No, no," Emerald laughed, stumbling back into my chest on Spotlight Citadel's dancefloor. "You have to spin me! Not throw me!"

"Well I've never done this before," I admitted, a grin on my face as I braced myself with one of my feet. One of my arms was wrapped around the girl's waist, my fingers entwined with hers, the other was currently placed upon the back of her shoulder, offering support.

"Again," the girl decided, spinning out of my embrace to face me with an exaggerated flourish. She had a smile on her face, an expression that I found contagious. "Like so!"

I placed my now-unoccupied hand on her waist even as she put her free arm around my neck.

"Snooty doesn't suit you," I murmured, a half smile pulling the edge of my lips up.

She glanced up at me, her eyes bright in the ethereal light the dust chandeliers provided us. "Alright then, how 'bout ditzy?"

"Please don't-"

"Oh. My. Stars! I cannot _believe _what Madam I'm-so-green-can't-you-tell-its-in-my-name is wearing tonight," the girl said emphatically, tucking her head under my chin and pressing closer to me. She was warm. And soft.

She felt nice.

"Maybe she farms grass," I wondered, pulling the girl with me as I side-stepped a particularly enthusiastic couple. They looked like they were dancing a jig of some kind – odd, considering the music was far too slow for something so high-energy.

A grin pulled at my lips. "Heads up," I muttered into Emerald's ear. "Someone's got something to prove."

She shifted enough to turn her head – her hair brushed against my chin and my neck as she did so, I couldn't place the smell, but it was pleasing. Something that reminded me of rainy, spring days. Not too overpowering but not subtle enough not to be missed either.

"Woah," Emerald muttered as we swayed with the music. "That's… either really impressive or really dangerous."

"For them or the guests around them," I asked, squeezing her fingers before I slackened them enough to release her hand. I moved mine to her waist.

"Both," the girl laughed, placing her other arm around my neck. She looked up at me. "I'm about to judge you with all of my three conversations' worth of experience."

"Wasn't it two?"

"I count the time in the warehouse."

I threw my head back and laughed, both surprised and amused she would classify that as a conversation. It was a thirty second exchange wherein she her mental state was somewhere between disoriented and delusional and her physical state was a combination of beaten and bruised and bloodied.

"Anyway," she said, grinning up at me. "I think I like the laid-back you better… See, you have two Entens: scary-don't-mess-with-me Enten and I'm-a-harmless-jokester-so-come-and-talk-to-me Enten."

"And you like the second one better?"

"Quite. He doesn't rant about wine glasses."

"Don't even get me started," I scoffed, glancing toward one of the waiters on hand. He held a platter of the very same chalices. "I _hate_ the short ones – they don't hold wine as well as the tall ones do because they're closer to the ground. Plus, they're heavier-"

"I think you need to spin me," Emerald cut in, splaying her fingers across the back of my neck before she took one arm away.

"Really? Are you absolutely certain you don't want to hear about my Lord and Savior Wine Glass," I asked, grasping her hand with one of my own.

The girl quirked an eyebrow, a half smile on her face. "What?"

"Nothing," I chirped, lifting my arm. I kept my fingers loose and, instead of trying to guide her this time, I let her spin herself. Her hair followed her progress and tossed about its pleasant scent even as the music within the ballroom eased my mind further into a content lull.

"You did it," she said breathlessly as she completed the turn. She leaned into me, still giddy.

"I can't take full credit," I returned, placing two fingers on her forehead-

_Hot-smoldering-burning-__**hot!**_

I jerked my arm away and clutched at my fingers with my other hand, staring wide eyed at the dusky skin of her forehead. It was unblemished and appeared to be completely normal but the heat radiating from my fingers told a different story.

Ignoring the wide eyed, open mouthed look of surprise on her face, I turned my attention then to my fingers.

They were still whole, at least. Whole and intact and just a little red. The burning sensation was fading even as my Aura extended its reach back over the digits and-

'_My Aura,' _I realized. It was not covering my fingers – not initially, anyway. Had it been burned away?

"Enten," Emerald asked, her eyes still wide. Slowly, she reached toward my hand with one of her own.

My eyes narrowed but I allowed the contact – her fingers hadn't burned me before, after all – and she proceeded to inspect the digits herself. It took her only a few short moments of turning my hand over in hers to come to the same conclusion as I: my hand was absolutely fine.

"What happened," the girl asked quietly even as a dancing couple brushed by us.

"Not here," I said, equally as quiet as I lamented the loss of the lighthearted atmosphere between the two of us.

* * *

_Minutes later – Skyreach Mountains, Spotlight Citadel, Outer Balcony_

"Hold still," I reminded Emerald even as she placed her back against the outer wall of Spotlight Citadel. Around us, the night air howled once more and the cold nipped at my skin.

"Just hurry up," the girl grunted, one hand placed on the railing for support and the other fisted at her side. Her eyes were clenched shut. "I can feel it again. It hurts…"

"Yeah it does," I agreed, reaching out with my dominant hand. "Maybe next time you see a glowing Grimm you shouldn't get close to it."

"No choice," she argued, glancing up at me through one narrowed eye. The other remained shut. "It charged me, swung its claws at me and…"

"And hit your head," I finished. "I know. You told me. Doesn't change the fact that you never should have been near it in the first place."

"Ironwood's orders," the girl spat. "Can you just hurry up?!"

An exasperated sigh escaped me and I shut my eyes briefly. When I was readying myself for the Schnee Ball earlier today I never expected, first, to have as much fun as I did with Emerald and, second, to end up alone on a secluded balcony with the girl doing _this_.

Draining one's Aura was a tricky process. I was far from proficient at doing it and even when I managed to successfully take Aura, it would require minutes of complete and utter concentration for me to hold on to it.

I was stealing part of someone else, after all. If the stories were to be believed then Aura was the manifestation of an individual's soul. Their sum total. Their very being.

To say it was hard to take someone's Aura was a massive understatement.

"Enten!"

"Alright, alright," I muttered, my hand hovering over the girl's forehead. Already, I could feel the heat pouring out of her dark skin. It was hot. Burning hot. It felt like I was holding my hand inches over a campfire and that alone was nearly unbearable… it was only through the help of my Aura that I could stand my skin being this close.

And given how quickly the heat burned through that protection in the ballroom…

"Here goes nothin'," I said, placing the skin of my palm on her-

_It was hot. It was hot and my Aura was retreating under the assault and my skin was burning. Burning! Red hot fire- Heat!_

I pulled my hand away with a gasp and Emerald slumped against the Citadel's wall, groaning even as she clutched at her head. She pulled her knees up to her face.

"Shit," I muttered, going down to a knee myself. Again, the heat managed to surprise me with its intensity. How was it that there was no visible indication of her forehead being so hot? Just what was this stuff?

"That's not Aura," I observed, carefully tilting Emerald's head up with my left hand. The girl groaned again and tried to bury her face back into her knees but I moved my right hand forward, quickly, and placed it on-

_Fire! Fire! Blood-boiling, intense, scorching hot pain-_

'_Calm,' _I reminded myself, my teeth grinding together even as I halted the retreat of my Aura half way down my arm in the face of the energy. That it was so eager to get away from the source of this heat unnerved me. _'Calm.'_

A gasp escaped me even as my arm started shaking. My fingers curled around the girl's skull because I knew my hand would slip otherwise and I-

_Blinding hot energy! Burning! Eating away at my skin like-_

I forced my Aura to return to my hand. To my palm. It strained every limit of my control to make it obey and even then, it fought me. It fought my will every inch it crept closer to the burning-

_Red hot fire like blood curdling-boiling-taking away-_

A growl escape me even as I pushed my Aura further. It was _mine _to control. Mine! It was my energy. My life force. My essence and I _would not _be disobeyed!

Slowly, excruciatingly slowly, it crept forward again. It reached my wrist – the joint was burning and aching and cracking and protesting the scorching heat being forced against my palm – and brought with it a dampening salve. Relief spread briefly through my mind even as the energy emanating from Emerald's forehead spiked in time with the girl gasping. My teeth grit and the girl clutched at her head, barely stifling a scream, but I held onto my Aura. I kept it where it was through a titanic amount of effort.

'_No retreating,' _I told myself. _'No retreating. No retreating.'_

The phrase echoed around my skull like a mantra because my Aura did not like the energy in Emerald's forehead and the energy did not like my Aura. My Aura was strong, though, I possessed the most resilient Aura on team RWEBY – Yang came close, but where she beat me in raw amount, I beat her in toughness.

'_No retreat,' _I affirmed as gooseflesh raced up my arm, the product of adrenaline creeping into my system. My Aura snapped to attention and roared forward, easily overtaking the heat present on my palm and I-

_Uncontrollable-chaotic-unstable-different-other. Other!_

I swallowed heavily, screwing my eyes shut and reaffirming my mental control over my Aura. Immediately, it started to wither and burn in the face of this energy but the heat was gone and the pain was gone and I _would not _retreat. This energy had the ability to eat away at my Aura like it was nothing and I found that very, very disconcerting.

But on the bright side, this energy was not Aura. I had absolutely no difficult in differentiating it from my energy.

Emerald groaned lowly and her fingers grew lax. She pressed her head forward, into my hand.

"Don't stop," she whimpered. "Don't stop."

'_Aura offers relief,' _I noted even as the energy flared up again. My eyes narrowed and my teeth grit together. The green haired girl in front of me moaned when the volatile force pushed back at my Aura but I would not yield. I would not crumble.

'_No retreating. No retreating. No retreating!'_

A sigh escaped me when my Aura subdued the opposing force and I took advantage of its docility – short-lived though it may be – to study it.

It was not Aura, that much I knew immediately. This energy was easily distinguishable to me whereas normal Aura gave me trouble. I could barely tell my own Aura apart from another's but whatever this was gave me no such issue.

_Volatile-Hot-Burning_

It flared up again but I was ready for it, this time. My Aura returned the eruption with one of its own. But whereas the energy was volatile, uncontrolled and spontaneous, my Aura was controlled. It was unyielding. It was like a solid wall of soothing reassurance given form that snuffed out the energy's fit easily.

Too easily.

My eyes narrowed and I leaned in, closer. My fingers were partially buried in Emerald's vividly lime-green hair and my palm laid flat against her forehead. I thought I could see a hint of red beneath my hand but it disappeared-

No! There was red. There was blood there! But-

But it disappeared, again. Like it was…

Still, closer, I leaned. Quickly, I located another blood stain and watched, entranced, as it disappeared. Evaporated. As it vaporized and dissolved into…

Into purple energy-

_The force gathered in a split second, hummed metallically inside of its prison and unleashed itself in a visible display of power._

_The Aura was purple._

_It quickly closed in on Neo and the woman extended her umbrella out in front-_

"Enten," Emerald whispered. "Enten- it's still there-I can still feel it-"

"I know," I murmured, putting the blood-turned-Aura mystery from my mind. If it was helping me subdue this energy then it was taking the burden away from my real Aura…

My eyes narrowed. Speaking of, my Aura was no longer being eaten away. In the first few seconds I maintained contact with Emerald, well over one third of it was destroyed but… but now?

Nothing. No loss. No… if anything, I felt like I was gaining Aura. Gaining strength.

'_Later,' _I reminded myself. _'Focus on getting this energy out now.'_

"Right," I muttered. "Right… Emerald, I'm going to start trying to remove this stuff, okay?"

"Okay," she whimpered. "Don't move your hand. I don't know how you're doing it but it doesn't hurt so much now."

My brow slackened as I observed her face. Eyes clenched shut, moisture gathering at their edges. Lips pulled down into a frown. Her hands, loosely wrapped around my right arm, ensuring that I maintained contact with her. A sniffling nose. Shaking shoulders…

The girl was terrified.

'_Remnant,' _I thought bitterly. This girl was barely old enough to drive. She shouldn't be forced to face down monsters intent on eating her alive. She shouldn't have been put in a position where this energy had the chance to wound her. She shouldn't have to suffer like this.

"Let's do this," I said, my eyes narrowing, my resolve hardening. My Aura responded readily, snapping to attention and clawing at the energy- the _pestilence _that was hiding away in her forehead. I ignored her Aura easily, given how similar it was to my own, and instead slowly extended my Aura – my strangely, oddly, _purple _Aura – into her body.

Blindly, I searched out the end of the energy's presence. Carefully, I slid my Aura around the infection and forcefully, brutally clamped down on any kind of protest it threw at me. My Aura progressed, creeping forward and overtaking the energy. It put up a fight and I had to pause no less than three times to retain my control over it, but I did it.

I subdued it. My Aura beat it back.

"I'm going to take it out, now, Emerald," I cautioned. "I don't know if this will hurt."

"Just do it," she muttered, her eyes still shut.

I swallowed. "I need you to let go of my arm."

She breathed in sharply and her fingers briefly tightened around the limb. "Okay," she whispered, withdrawing her hands. "Okay…"

"Ready," I muttered even as the energy lashed out once more. My lips pulled back and my mouth erupted into a snarl.

'_Still it fights,' _I thought, a mixture of disbelief and annoyance flooding my mind even as I used my Aura to snuff out the energy's latest bout of resistance.

A sigh escaped me and the mountain breeze chose that moment to make its presence known. It stirred Emerald's hair and the girl offered me a strained smile from under my palm. Her arms were wrapped around her knees, now, and her head was held high.

Slowly, a smile grew on my face too.

"Now," I said suddenly, ripping my hand away from her forehead. It came away easily and her head lurched forward.

She gasped and her hands flew up to her face, touching the unblemished skin even as her eyes widened. Her fingers did not come away bloody, though.

'_Not when all my blood turned into Aura.'_

Suddenly, my blood name – my first family name – made so much more sense to me.

"Here it is," I murmured, the small smile still present on my face. Slowly, I leaned forward and presented my right hand to the girl.

Her eyes widened.

Outlined in a halo of ethereal purple Aura was a small ball of vivid red energy. It lashed about inside its prison, pressing against the unforgiving confines with which my Aura presented it and struggling futilely against my control. My hand was no longer bloodied, my skin having healed over completely, and I slowly closed it around the volatile ball.

It was no larger than my thumb's fingernail.

"_That_ is what's been giving me migraines for the last two weeks," Emerald muttered, wide eyed.

"Looks like it," I muttered, slowly rising to my feet. I carefully urged my purple Aura to move from side to side, experimentally poking and prodding at the energy it contained.

'_Controlled like my normal Aura is,' _I noted even as Emerald slowly stood as well. The girl leaned toward me and I obliged her by lowering my hand between us.

"It's… It's so tiny," she muttered. "How can that be so powerful? How can _you _overpower it?"

"I'm afraid my answer will leave you disappointed," I admitted. "This is the first time I've tried to control and contain _anything _with my Aura."

"Why is it purple?"

I shrugged, still staring at the seemingly harmless ball of energy contained within the palm of my hand. The purple haze hovering over my skin danced in time with the tiny red ball in its center, constantly out-matching and suppressing the volatile little sphere. At the edge of the purple energy, vivid and visible in the night sky, was my blue Aura. The two energies mixed together and mingled at their border, amiable.

"Enten," Emerald muttered.

"What?"

"So you're telling me you have no idea why your Aura is purple? And for that matter, why is it so… visible?"

"Guess," I said, a grin upon my face.

The girl sighed and shook her head but I saw a small smile growing upon her lips.

"Come on," she muttered, the smile on her face extending and her eyes narrowing. A coy expression greeted me as she brought her head closer to mine. The girl slid around and passed the hand that was holding the red energy and raised herself up – closer to my height – by the support of her hand on my shoulder.

"Haven't I earned it," the girl murmured, tilting her head ever so slightly.

"Strange turn of events," I admitted softly, slowly rotating my head opposite hers.

"I'm a huntress," she whispered, her eyes fluttering shut even as her face drew within inches of mine. "Strange values."

I licked my lips and hummed. My hand drifted to the small of her back even as my vision faded in time with my closing eyelids.

Our lips met.

Our lips met and my mind was swiftly overloaded with _her_. With her smell. How she felt. The silken folds of the dress under my hands. The firm, but somehow still soft, musculature it hid.

I wasn't certain how much time passed but, when we pulled apart, our eyes just barely open, I found myself wanting more. My hand urged her closer to me and her arms around my neck – _'When had they gotten there?' _– tightened, drawing her closer still. She pulled herself up, her chest flush against my own – _'Soft. Warm…' _– and my eyes drifted shut once more.

Again, our lips met, softly at first but more firmly as we grew used to each other. Through the haze that had overtaken my mind, I recognized one of her hands drift into my hair, her nails scratching lightly at my scalp. My feet moved forward of their own accord and, suddenly, she was pressed up against the wall of Spotlight Citadel.

My senses were quickly overwhelmed and I pulled back briefly to release a breath into the cold, night air. She pulled me back in shortly thereafter though and I brought my other hand-

"Mmph," she grunted into my mouth, panicked. My eyes shot open even as I retreated and her hands placed themselves on my chest. Without any further ceremony, she shoved me away from herself, one red eye wide open and the other clenched shut.

"Ow," she hissed, her hand drifting to her back-

Pain sparked suddenly on the skin of my right palm and the haze over my mind suddenly found itself evicted abruptly and harshly. My focus immediately darted down to my hand and I found the energy dangerously-

'_Shit,' _I railed even as I brought my other hand up to help contain the energy. My control over it had grown lax while I was… distracted and the volatile red ball apparently managed to use that to its advantage. It fought ferociously to escape the confines of my Aura – still purple in color – but now that my attention was on it, it quickly found itself fighting an uphill battle.

The energy lashed out again and weakened my Aura's hold on it even as my eyes widened. I closed my hands around it and channeled more of my power into my fingers, tinting them blue.

'_Not purple,'_ I noted even as the energy's protests weakened again. What will to escape it had – because it certainly seemed like it had a mind of its own – must have been expended in that last attempt at freedom.

"What are you going to do with it," Emerald asked quietly.

I jumped, having forgotten that the girl was there in the wake of the energy's near-escape, and glanced up at her. She was rubbing her back, a wince only just fading from her expression.

"Keep it," I said, my eyes narrowing even as I looked back down at my palm.

"Why," she asked, her voice wary.

There was power in knowledge, this I knew well, and the tiny ball of… _something _in my hand held answers and information about my Aura that I knew no other way of obtaining. That purple Aura appeared to be a product of my blood mixing with my regular power but of its properties I knew nothing other than the fact that it appeared to be even more resilient than my blue Aura and able to contain this small, innocent looking sphere.

Therefore, by learning about this power, this energy, I would be enabling myself to learn about my Aura.

About – if my suspicions were correct – my Semblance.

"Enten," Emerald demanded. "That thing is dangerous – you should just get rid of it!"

"Power isn't inherently dangerous," I responded absentmindedly. "Not if you can control it."

"You don't seem to have much control over _that_," she argued, her finger pointing in accusation at the volatile orb hovering inside of purple energy just above my palm.

Purple energy that appeared to be dwindling. It was much easier to control the small orb just after I removed it from Emerald's forehead than it was now, minutes later. Even now, the unstable ball lashed out against my Aura and, though the purple energy won out, it took longer to suppress the attack than it did before.

"I can manage," I assured her, glancing up at her face long enough to offer the girl a smile.

She shook her head. "It's too dangerous," the girl insisted, stalking over to me.

I rose to my feet, holding out my free hand, my fingers splayed, to stall her advance. "I can control it. We both know that," I reminded the green haired girl. Then, when she stopped, I opened up my other hand, allowing the mixture of red and purple light to wash over us. It illuminated our faces and clashed horribly with the white hue that emanated from the dust-made balcony.

"Look at it," I muttered, watching even as the red energy lashed out again, only to be beaten down by my Aura. There wasn't much left, now. "Watch it struggle. Watch it try to escape. Why does it fight? Why does it try to run? Why does it do anything?"

"I don't know," Emerald admitted, shaking her head slowly. "But that thing has been nothing but trouble since it was forced on me. Just… just throw it away, Enten."

"I can't. I will not throw this away," I responded. "Knowledge is power, Emerald. Who am I to ignore it? Who am I to not grasp it when it _literally _sits in the palm of my hand?"

"You don't know what that thing is capable of."

"No," I admitted. "No, I don't… and that is why I must keep it."

"Enten," Emerald pleaded, her eyebrows slack. "Get rid of it. Please? For me?"

I shook my head, slowly covering up the orb with my other hand. The soft red and purple glow accompanying us on the balcony abruptly faded. This would hurt.

"It is my belief that there are two kinds of people in this world, Emerald," I started, slamming my palms together.

She gasped and her hands reflexively splayed themselves in front of her face. The girl cringed away from me even as vivid red, blue and purple flashes of energy escaped from between my fingers.

"Two kinds of people," I reiterated, grunting when I felt the volatile energy dissolve the normal Aura over my palms and begin to dig into my skin. "One group is dangerous. They know what must be done and they are willing to go to any length to see their desires achieved. They are willing to brave danger, willing to take risks and willing to venture into the unknown, so long as it furthers their cause."

I swallowed heavily, licking my lips once even as purple energy started rushing out from between my hands. It announced its presence boldly and, within seconds, snuffed out the red glow entirely.

"The other group, Emerald," I continued, glancing up at the girl. She was watching my hands closely, her eyes wide and her pupils shrunken. "The other group wants to play it safe. They want to ignore the world around them and pretend everything is alright. They live in ignorance and use it as their shield. Taking risks never even occurs to them. They hope. They wish. They believe. They _die_."

A grin developed upon my face even as I felt the pain in my hands start to fade.

"In short, Emerald," I said, my voice rising in volume as the wind chose that moment to stir. "There are those that _perish_," I continued, opening up my hands and allowing the purple Aura to wash over us. "…And those that _survive._ Which one are you?"

Slowly, the girl shook her head, staring with wide eyes at the small red orb. "I… I'm not… I like the harmless jokester Enten more than… than this one."

A scoff escaped me even as movement near the edge of the balcony attracted my eye. Quickly, I hid my right hand behind my back and enclosed the red energy within my fingers. The purple glow emitting from it receded until, just as the person stepped out into the night, it was barely noticeable.

"Excuse me," the young, white haired girl stated as her eyes found mine. "Father has asked to see Enten Melkweg. He, and your team, are awaiting your presence in his study. Please follow me."

My eyes narrowed and I took a moment to observe the girl. She was younger than me, that much was clear, and I would guess at her age being perhaps twelve to fourteen. But I was also fairly bad at guessing ages. Luckily, I knew this girl. I knew she was due to turn fourteen in three months. I also knew she once enjoyed eating muffins before the sun rose and belting out lyrics to her favorite songs as a child. I knew she used to love having her nails done and how she envied her elder cousin because she used to have a crush on the woman's fiancé. I knew her favorite color. Her favorite huntress. Her favorite food. Her favorite family member and card game and season and I even knew what her favorite shampoo scent was.

How could I not know so much about Winter Schnee? To know nothing of her was impossible when Weiss Schnee cared so very much for her.

She was a slight girl, dressed in a simple gown that fell to her ankles. Her toes were left bare by her heeled shoes and even though they only added perhaps two inches to her height, I could tell she was taller than Weiss. Her eyes were a darker, more piercing shade of blue than her sister's and her hair was shorter too; it was drawn up into a bun on the top of her head.

Winter cleared her throat, once, and tilted her chin upward.

It was a gesture that reminded me so heavily of Weiss it brought a smile to my face.

"Emerald," I said softly, a smile growing on my face. "Can we continue this later?"

The girl licked her lips, glancing away from the younger of the Schnee siblings and toward me. "Just… Just…"

"Don't worry," came my response. I wrapped my free arm around her waist and squeezed her to my side. "I'll make sure we have time for another dance."

With that, I paced toward the smaller, white-haired girl and she turned on her heel when I grew close to her. Without any further ceremony, she retreated back into the ballroom and started to lead me, presumably, to her father's study.

* * *

**A/N: **So, when I started writing this fanfic just about a year ago, I did it because I wanted to see if I could write an OC/SI-ish (because Enten is really his own character now) story that defied the norm and made for an interesting read. That goal was born out of a selfish desire to prove that I could do what many other authors could not and, frankly, isn't something I like to dwell on now. I like to think I've gotten over myself and my insecurities as a writer and with that came the realization that writing for a little number on a page somewhere isn't what I should be doing.

That last chapter got 64 reviews, see, and I couldn't figure out why I wasn't any more excited to read what you guys have to say than I was for any other chapter. But then I took a step back, ignored the quantity, and realized that I enjoy reading your feedback, regardless of how much of it there is. It's that human element in an otherwise unfeeling environment; those opinions and thoughts and interactions that drive me forward.

What I'm trying to say is that I value you guys as readers just as much as you value me as a writer. And that I hope you'll join me on this ride until the very end… because the end is near for this story.

The sequel, the one that'll cover post-RWBY season 3 and on, hasn't even started yet.

_Anyway_, enough of my rambling. If you've survived my author's note to this point then congratulations! I'm pretty sure most people don't bother to read these unless they're looking for a review response or some specific piece of information.

And on that note…

**Pyrrha's fate** isn't as set in stone as it is in the series. Not yet, anyway. Enten changes… well, _a lot _of things about the Remnant world and, currently, Pyrrha's time of death is one of them.

**Roman Torchwick** will not die in this story damnit. As long as I can find a way to keep that man alive, I'm going to do it. And if I can't… well, shit. At the very least I'll give him a better death!

As for **Yang **and **Blake**… well, you'll just have to wait and see!

**Nemrut: **It might be a little shortsighted to convince everyone that Blake isn't a faunus, but leaving Coco to claim that she _is _might be even more destructive. Coco forced them into the proverbial corner: either stop Blake from revealing herself as a faunus for the forseeable future or let people wonder. It was safer for Blake to simply be seen as human.

**Aurain Orimura: **Thank you

**Name Change: **Roman must live! He must! As for the curviest of curve balls line… yeah, I admit it, I like to see if I can surprise you guys regardless of how well you know Enten/RWEBY/Remnant. Don't worry though, no super villain curve ball coming, Enten will remain a good-super villain.

**MrtheratedG: **Don't be so hard on yourself haha! We all like playing the hero at the center of the attention and I have a feeling there'll be plenty of that to come!

**Lucifer Daemon: **What power plays?

**Janus: **Enten doesn't necessarily assume no one lies but at the same time, he doesn't assume everybody _does _lie either. Both of those mentalities would be destructive in nature because one would lead to an incredibly gullible character while the other would lead to a character too paranoid to do anything but hide away from the world. Rather, Enten judges trustworthiness on a conversation to conversation basis. He caught Mercury in a half-truth because he knew enough to figure out the boy was lying. You with me?

**TetrisLame: **"Duck milking way" huh? A concidence, I assure you!

**Numero Dos: **Every mech army has a base of operations... we just don't know where the Schnee family keep theirs yet

**Umbrardor: **I don't know about Yang and Blake, but I got the other half done with this last chapter!

**Victore chez**: I love reading through your progression with the story – some things you mention are things I'd forgotten about, honestly! As far as Spotlight Citadel's security… well, the Schnee family has their ways. Enten just doesn't know of them yet. 'The walls have eyes/ears' has never been truer…

**Nightmareeater532**: That he is. The key to being a dick, I feel, is to embrace it!

**Isodrink: **Thank you for sharing! Reviews like yours are a huge boost for me and I enjoyed reading it!

**Dakaath: **Not sure if you're still reading but I wanted to acknowledge your point: I never thought of placing him on team CRDL. That wasn't what I had in mind when I started this thing but it certainly would have been interesting!

**To my other reviewers: **Thank you for your feedback, your thoughts, your opinions and your criticisms. I read all of them and though I may not have responded here, I appreciate it all the same!

**One last note **before I go: I like that some of you use the reviews as a sort of chat/discussion place, but I wanted to mention now that it should be kept civil. None of you have crossed that line yet, but as a matter of foresight, I wanted to mention that now rather than when it was too late.

Till next time.

-Phailen


	35. Chapter 35

_A short time later - Skyreach Mountains, Spotlight Citadel, Inner Chambers_

"So," I murmured, glancing around the grand hallway that Winter was leading me down. There were busts and statues and portraits placed upon the inner wall to my left while the outer one offered enrapturing views of Atlas' countryside via wide, crystal clear windows. It was dark outside, but that was alright, the ambient lighting put off by the very walls themselves was sufficient enough to see by. "Do you guys live up here?"

"The Schnee family does not live in Spotlight Citadel," the girl intoned without bothering to glance back at me, her voice neutral. "We reside in our ancestral manor, located just outside Atlas City proper."

Atlas City, formerly known as Mantle City. It was a port town on the southern side of the continent, toward the western end. Spotlight Citadel was located on the northeastern most part of Atlas, in the mountain range that generally marked the start of land too harsh to live in to the north.

"Ah," I grunted, taking care to scuff my shoe on the ground and watching as the girl's knuckles tightened in response. Her hands were held, rigid and immobile until now, at the small of her back. "Makes sense, I guess. This place is more vulnerable anyway."

"The Schnee family keeps a compliment of robotic guards on hand to defend Spotlight Citadel. We are safe here."

"Oh, I don't know," I returned, glancing at a floor length mirror on the inner wall as I passed it and grinning when I caught the minute purple glow emanating from within my fingers. My Aura was holding steady still and, so long as that remained true, I would continue to hold onto the volatile energy taken from Emerald's very forehead. "All it takes is one lucky hostile – you've certainly got plenty of enemies too… the faunus chief among them."

"The faunus are a menace to society," the girl stated. There was no detectable emotion in her voice – she spoke with a finality that indicated absolute confidence in her words. "They thrive on lies and slander. They extend the hand of peace with one arm but commit murder and participate in thievery with the other. Schnee Dust Company will not live in fear of criminal threats."

I blinked, more shocked than I was angry. It startled me to learn she viewed the faunus even more negatively than Weiss once did. On the other hand, I expected her opinion to be negatively colored first because she was a Schnee and, second, because my white haired teammate warned me about it. Thus, I was caught somewhere between surprise and rage. Most of all, though, I was resigned; it made sense that Hagel Schnee would stamp out any sign of weakness in Winter that he inadvertently inspired in Weiss. Where the elder Schnee daughter feared the faunus, the younger one only appeared to despise them.

'_And that makes this so much harder...'_

Weiss asked me to help Winter, after all. I did not know what she meant when she asked it of me on the airship but… now I knew. She feared that her younger sibling would be conditioned to hate the faunus on principle, and rightfully so. The girl was already so far gone…

"I see," I murmured as I exhaled through my nose. "What do you think of the White Fang?"

"A façade to hide the faunus' depravity. Only recently have they shown their true colors."

At least on that we could agree. The White Fang was once a force of peace that I fully welcomed in my family's community. They supported my family with an open-mindedness that I found attractive. They did not care that I was a human, they only cared that my family was faunus and suffering for it. Their food pantry had certainly made life easier for mom when I was younger, of that I was certain… The years directly following Phoebe's birth were hard on her.

And it was because of those years that I would forever be grateful to the White Fang.

But that gratefulness did not translate into blind support. I saw their turn from peaceful to violent. I saw their members turn from kindly caregivers to fanatical criminals. I saw their emblem, the wolf's head on a blue background, go from a universally accepted symbol of hope for the future to a foreboding warning of inclement violence. When that symbol changed to a wolf's head overlaid on a three-claw mark, so too did the organization that used it.

I saw their fall, maybe not as intimately as Blake, but I saw it all the same.

Winter hesitated, then, which caused my attention to return to her. She glanced back at me briefly, her bottom lip between her teeth in what I realized was her first show of uncertainty for the night. Her feet paused and, with a precise motion punctuated by a turn of only her heel, she turned to face me. The ambient light given off by the dust and the faint light of the moon combined to create a luminescence that lit up her pale skin and her almost equally pale dress in an impressively glowing manner.

"I am speaking freely because you are my elder sister's teammate and father respected you enough to invite you to his ball," she said, making and thereafter maintaining eye contact with me. Her eyes were much darker than Weiss'. "You understand that these things cannot be spoken of freely, lest a sympathizer start trouble."

"Of course," I responded promptly, stopping alongside the girl. "Weiss has told me much of her childhood. The crimes the fa- the White Fang committed against your family are… shocking, to say the very least."

Her lips tightened and I thought I saw a frown begin to form but the expression was stamped out before it could show itself. Still, the fact that I could detect the expression at all was telling – Weiss, if she so desired, never would have let me see even the skin around her eyes begin to tighten, much less any indicator of a frown in her lips.

"She was right to educate her team on the dangers the faunus pose to civilized society," the girl said, nodding. I only just stopped myself from correcting her. The _White Fang _was the dangerous party. The faunus as a whole? Not even close.

'_Baby steps, Enten.'_

"Hmm," I intoned instead.

"Already they seek to undermine my family's business with the very dust they have stolen from us. The faunus are beneath even the Grimm, for they have free will and they only use it to cause misery. Savages."

"Selling back what they stole, didn't know that," I murmured, breathing deeply. The volatile power held prisoner in my hand lashed out and seared my skin. My eye twitched even as my Aura surged up and suppressed the annoyance – I almost forgot it was there.

"You would be wise not to mention it in front of father," the girl offered, turning in the same precise manner that only she and Weiss could. She began walking down the hallway once more. "He is not pleased. And rightfully so."

"Noted," I murmured, half of my attention still on the energy in my palm. My purple Aura was as strong as ever and I definitely had enough of it to last at least another few minutes. I hadn't lost so much blood tonight that I needed to worry about lightheadedness or, even worse, falling unconscious. So long as the meeting with Weiss' father didn't run any longer than a half hour… I would probably be alright to hold onto the energy.

'_I hope,' _I thought. I did not like to act without a plan but… the opportunity to study this red power presented itself and passing on that opportunity was more distasteful to me than capturing it without any foresight. Replenishing my purple Aura without being seen wasn't the issue – I could just keep my hands behind my back while I did it and take care to not let any glow be seen – but the unknown variable of just how long I would need to keep that energy replenished worried me.

A sigh escaped me and I shoved the issue from my mind. There was nothing I could do about it in the here and now except keep the power contained without anyone noticing anyway. Besides, Winter just provided me with a very interesting piece of information. One that demanded my attention more urgently than the energy in my palm.

The White Fang was trying to move in on the Schnee family's dust business. I did not know if their robberies extended outside of Vale but I was fairly certain that would be a necessity if the faunus organization hoped to even stand a chance at competing with SDC's output. The company owned mines, canyons and mountain ranges around the world, after all.

Almost anywhere dust could be found, so too could Schnee Dust Company.

Still, it made sense for the White Fang to want to tear down their de facto archenemy. Shrinking SDC's influence would also shrink support for the people who opposed the faunus gaining rights. Moving in on their business with their ill-gotten goods was a win-win situation for them.

Of course, finding a buyer willing to purchase their stolen merchandise was another matter entirely…

But no, I could see the sense in going after the Schnee family. They were not well liked even among my family's community, easy-going as it was – they were the bogeyman to the faunus just as the faunus were to Weiss.

That part made sense to me. What I could not understand was why Roman Torchwick and his allies went along with it.

What did they stand to gain? Were they employed by a rival of SDC? Were they employed at all? Did they only wish to stir up the pot and cause chaos?

No, no because Ruby fought Torchwick when the man wasn't working with the White Fang. He was still trying to obtain dust but he was using some thugs from a local gang to do it. That suggested that he, too, needed dust. But why?

Dust was power, of course. It fueled our airships and our vehicles. It served as ammunition for our weapons. It powered our lights and our Scrolls and our communication systems and _everything_ but why? Why did they need that power?

Perhaps they _were _employed by a rival company and found a common goal in the White Fang? A friend of a mutual enemy? Both sought Schnee Dust Company's product…

A frustrated grunt escaped me – Winter nearly stumbled – because I did not have enough information to determine their motives. All I knew was that Torchwick, Neo and whoever else worked with them needed dust.

Or perhaps they needed the White Fang?

'_That has potential,'_ I noted. Perhaps they needed the White Fang and because of that they needed dust? Were they trying to court the White Fang when Ruby ran into Torchwick? …Yes, that made sense. The time of occurrences lined up… Torchwick and his allies needed the White Fang, not dust!

But then why did they need the White Fang? And, more importantly, what could I do to disrupt their relationship?

I was hesitant still to throw myself into the middle of this conflict because it was certainly bigger than both myself and team RWEBY but Blake and Weiss were determined to put an end to the White Fang's activities for their own reasons and I was determined to keep them safe. It followed, then, that I was determined to put an end to the White Fang too.

'_So be it,' _I concluded. _'Disrupting this relationship between the White Fang and Torchwick takes priority. Divide and conquer.'_

"We are here," Winter stated as she turned a corner. The long hallway she was leading me down opened up into a parlor, complete with a massive rug on the floor, intricate armchairs, numerous end tables and plenty of decoration spread about its furnishings. I saw delicate glassware, ornate lamps and embroidered weapons of all kinds. There was even a Grimm skull!

'_Must be fake, they dissolve when they die,' _I noted even as my eyes continued their journey around the room.

Along one wall, there were double doors that were pitch black in color and managed, somehow, to contrast nicely with the dull white colorings of the dust walls around it. Other than that, there wasn't much to note except for the fact that the clear windows extended into the foyer as well.

"You will find my father – and your team – through those doors," the younger girl said, glancing in my direction even as she indicated the black doors with a graceful gesture of her arm. "If you require anything else, a servant is on hand through the door behind you."

I glanced over my shoulder to find a more plain-looking door along the wall at my back. It too was made of dust, of course, though its color matched that of the walls around it.

The sound of heeled shoes – not as loud or as sharp as those of my teammates but noticeable still – drew my attention back to the younger of the two Schnee daughters. She was pacing toward the hallway, now.

"Winter," I called even as I stepped up to the double black doors.

The girl stopped abruptly and spun on her heel to face me. "Yes?"

"I have a soft spot for romance novels too," I admitted, watching as her eyes widened. "Happy endings are such a rarity in this world… It's nice to forget about all the conflict and misery and lose myself in a light-hearted fantasy from time to time."

Her mouth opened and closed soundlessly once, then twice, before she clenched her eyes shut and cleared her throat, hiding the gesture behind one of her fists. "I am… pleased that you enjoy, uh, enjoy literature too!"

That said, the girl excused herself with a nod and retreated down the long hallway, her pace quicker than before. I watched her go, silent, until she disappeared completely around the corner. I then listened to the fading rhythm of her shoes until I could no longer hear them.

"_If you can help her," Weiss muttered, turning to stare out of the airship's window. "Then please, do so. I fear father will have gotten even more tenacious given my… rebellion."_

I turned to face the black doors with a sigh on my lips. They were foreboding and quite intimidating against the soft white colorings of the walls. Add to that the fact that they led to the office of a man for whom I held no respect and I ended up very tempted to simply wait outside. I wanted to spare myself the experience of being in his presence.

"_You know it's not your fault," I whispered, placing my hand on her upper arm. "Don't beat yourself up for leaving. It isn't your fault your father is even more strict with Winter. It's his. His fault and his alone."_

Were this man not the patriarch of the Schnee family, were he not the richest man on Remnant, were his connections not so invaluable to team RWEBY… I would have words for him. Even now, my temper boiled and the energy in my right fist pushed its boundaries once more. My eyes clenched shut and my free hand coiled into a fist. My breath came sharply from my nose and I felt my skin heat.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to shout. I wanted to rage at the man that instilled in a girl of five a fear of the faunus so powerful that it occasionally woke her in the middle of the night even now. Twelve years later. Twelve! I wanted to wring his neck and toss him from this stupid testament to his empire of fear and discrimination!

…But I could not.

My eyes slowly opened and I swallowed once. My Aura rushed to my command and snuffed out any hint of protest from the tiny red orb held within my right hand. And, just as my Aura suppressed the volatile ball, I clamped down on my anger.

My fist unclenched. My breathing slowed. My shoulders slackened and my jaw loosened.

I wanted to be angry. But I could not.

I could not because this man was useful to team RWEBY and, like it or not, he must be played nice with. Putting political power ahead of Weiss' suffering did not sit well with me at all because it went against everything I stood for. Everything I worked for. It was anathema to me.

But we were in a war, now. A shadow war filled with secretive meetings, subterfuge and clandestine missions that Beacon could not know of. And if team RWEBY was to fight in a war, then we would need help. We would need help to beat back this entity to which Torchwick and Neo belonged. We would need help to face down the White Fang.

So I would place nice.

The first casualty of war was innocence, after all.

_She turned to me, a frown on her lips. "You'll need to control yourself if we meet with him. I appreciate your anger on my behalf… I appreciate it more than words can describe… I never thought I'd have a friend like-" She shook her head. "But you cannot make my father an enemy. Our team needs help more than I need retribution."_

One last breath was pushed from my lungs, escaping through my nose and ruffling the pristine collar of my dress shirt. I straightened my tie as best I could one-handed and, after lifting my chin up, raised a fist to the door.

'_Here goes nothing.'_

My knuckles rapped dully on the black surface. The doors sounded heavy. Thick. Strong. It made for a startling contrast to the soft, lighthearted music I could only just hear through the inner wall of the room.

"Enter," a masculine voice called from behind the doors.

So I did.

My left hand pushed on the pitch black dust even as my right hand drifted behind my back, the red orb dormant for the time being. The door opened slower than I expected, its weight surprising me, but it drifted inward without a single sound at my urging.

A dark room greeted me. A room filled with long shadows, darkened corners and ominous shapes. The walls were made of the same dark dust and shed little to no light by which one might see. The far wall, however, was unique in that it featured panels of clear dust. A floor-length, room-wide window that outdid its glass look-alikes easily - the wall allowed the glow of the moon to enter the room unhindered.

And, as the door drifted shut behind me, I realized that it was also the only source of light.

In front of the window and outlined by the moonlight was a large desk, also made of a dark material – the dust, I thought. There was a tall chair behind it and, given the lack of light, its occupant was hidden in the shadows.

But that was alright, for this man needed no introduction. His presence was felt easily despite the lack of sight. The atmosphere in the room was stifling and I knew the figure in the chair was responsible for it.

Hagel Schnee.

I could only see the outline of his jaw, part of his exquisite looking tuxedo, and the hand that rested flat upon his desk. It was weathered, not gnarled. Aged, not ancient.

"Enten Melkweg," the man intoned, gesturing with his free hand to my team. "Please, join us."

The girls were arrayed in front of the man's desk, all standing. Ruby Rose was just in front of the other three, her shoulders and spine stiff, chest thrust outward and chin raised. She glanced over her shoulder at me even as I closed the door behind me, offering me a wink and a half grin, a gesture that I returned.

'_Nothing can put a damper on that girl's spirit,' _I noted even as my leader turned back to the Schnee patriarch and I paced forward.

Weiss Schnee was standing behind Ruby's right shoulder, her hands held behind her back in the very same way Winter Schnee held hers. Her gown, glowing down to the tips of her toes but never touching the floor, shown luminously in the dark room. Every shift of her body – of which there were few – caused moonlight to splash about the room and reflect off of the tiny dust crystals embedded into the silken garment.

A stark contrast to our Schnee teammate, Blake Belladonna stood just to the left of Ruby. The dark purple dress she chose for the evening reached down to her knees and served to absorb the light more than it did reflect it. Were it not for the window on the other side of her form and the pale color of her skin, I very much doubted I would be able to see her at all. I would have to suggest more dark tones in her combat uniform next time I had the chance – some dark greens or purples.

At the end of the line stood Yang Xiao Long. Her bright hair and dull white evening gown stood out almost as much as Weiss' did. But where the Schnee heiress was clearly visible because of her attire and her appearance, my blonde teammate stood out simply because she wanted to.

It was her presence, a presence she carried with her everywhere and exerted on everyone she met. Yang drew people to her with her grins – there was one on her face even now, as she arched an eyebrow at me over her shoulder – and her demeanor. She, more than anyone, was team RWEBY's heart and soul. A comforting presence, resolute and everlasting and infinite.

Even now, I felt the edge of my lips creep upward into a smile. Any latent anger I harbored within me still fled. My mind cleared and gooseflesh announced its presence on my arms with a rush of adrenaline.

I took my place between Weiss and Blake, my chin held high.

We were team RWEBY. When we stood together, nothing could stop us.

Hagel Schnee cleared his throat, one hand still laid flat upon his desk, and stroked his chin. I thought I could see a goatee there – perhaps salt-and-pepper in its coloration.

"I hope you found my daughter to your liking," he intoned, his voice a mixture of deep baritones and scratchy undercurrents that suggested a long life.

My eyes narrowed minutely in confusion because the man was still looking at Ruby, as best I could tell. She did not respond, though, so I opened my mouth instead.

"Yes sir," I said, my voice clear and louder than it normally was. I punctuated my statement with a nod.

Another moment of silence fell over us then, like he expected me to continue, but I did not. The energy encased in the hand behind my back stirred.

"Very well," the man said at length. "May I interest you with something to drink?"

"No thank you."

I would not lose the clarity that was settled still over my mind. As much as I would enjoy a little whiskey or even some rum, I did not want to risk it. That was, of course, assuming he was offering me alcohol…

'_Too late now,' _I conceded idly, pushing the thought from my mind.

"All the same," Hagel Schnee responded, placing his free hand atop the one on his desk. His head was still aligned with my leader's position. "Now that your last member is here, Ruby, let us move onto the reason I summoned you."

"That would be acceptable," the girl said and I could hear the care she put into pronouncing each syllable of each word. She almost sounded like Professor Goodwitch, now, rather than the girl I knew as team RWEBY's leader. "We are very curious, Hagel."

The man chuckled – a low, rumbling sound – and rapped his knuckles once on the surface of his desk. It was a far hollower sound than what my knuckles made on the door.

"When I offered you the chance to call me by name, I must admit, I did not expect you to accept the invitation," he said. "But that is what your team does, is it not? You defy stereotypes and expectations placed upon your shoulders brazenly. Carelessly. Like a Grimm in the clothing of a faunus, you exist on a level above that of your peers."

The man paused, breathing in deeply. Next to me, Blake shifted her weight to her other foot and, on the fuanus' other side, Yang crossed her arms.

"We are not a normal team," Ruby noted.

My mind stirred and my eyes widened minutely, honing in on my leader. Her shoulders were tense and her spine was rigid. Her chin remained elevated and her posture stiff but I could sense the uncertainty in her demeanor. Her tell was a familiar one: her fingers were playing with the fabric of her dress behind her back.

That last statement confused me and I was willing to bet it was also the reason Ruby was nervous. It would have been better to let the man speak, given he was heaping praise upon us.

Despite my concern, I held my tongue. She was our leader and undermining her here was unacceptable. She must have had a reason to make the statement and so, I trusted. I remained silent even as Blake scratched at her neck beside me. Weiss, in contrast, remained perfectly still.

"Indeed," the man agreed at length. "A normal team you are not. But I wonder… are you aware of the implications that come with that statement? With abnormality?"

"If by implications you mean attention, then yes, I am fully aware."

'_Smart girl,'_ I acknowledged even as another one of the volatile orb's attacks was rebuffed by my Aura.

The man hummed low in his throat. "Pardon me," he said, his voice measured and slow. "I will not humor you any longer. I did not realize I was to speak with an adult here, Ruby."

"I find that hard to believe," the girl responded even as Weiss shifted minutely at my side. Light reflected off of the girl's dress danced across the room. "Your presence would encourage even a faunus to elevate itself."

My eyes widened and I clenched them shut as soon as I realized it – surprise was detrimental. Subtle queues like that would be seen and read by the Schnee patriarch. Surprise suggested a lack of foresight. A lack of foresight suggested a lack of planning. A lack of planning suggested a lack of interest. None of it was spoken but it would certainly be understood. One of many subtle conversational nuances in which Hagel Schnee was certainly well versed.

Still, I could not blame Blake for her sharp intake of breath or Yang for her grunt. Only Weiss did not react but she was also the sole member of RWEBY with actual social training. No, I could not fault Yang or Blake for I was caught off guard too. We all knew that Ruby had nothing against the faunus but to see her use them so eloquently as a talking point was…

Well done. It was incredibly well done, in fact. The insight, the ability to read people and work those observations into the conversation on the fly was something Weiss and I tried to instill in the girl on many occasions. Clearly, she was learning. Quickly.

'_I think this is pride I'm feeling right now.'_

"You give them too much credit," the man stated, his head still just as unmoving as the hand upon his desk. It was starting to register as odd. "But I do not wish to speak of the faunus, that topic will only weigh this discussion down and tonight is a night for celebration."

"Right… I did not mean to offend."

"You did not," the man said indifferently, waving a dismissive hand in the air. "In fact, you will find it difficult to offend me after what I observed of your team tonight, Ruby."

The younger girl's shoulders slackened ever so slightly. In the moonlight, I could see her lick her lips. Yang stirred, but stayed where she was even as her younger sister lifted her chin.

"We wanted to present ourselves at our best for your ball, Hagel. I hope we did not disappoint you."

"Quite the contrary," the man stated. "You impressed. You impressed many people, in fact, with your ploy to remove Coco Adel from attendance tonight."

Ruby twitched and her shoulders slumped entirely even as Blake shifted her weight again. Beside me, I heard Weiss inhale. Her gown shifted minutely, the dust within its silks again shining in an eye-catching fashion.

"Do not be surprised," Hagel Schnee continued, his face still shrouded in shadows – a fact that made him all but impossible to read. "Your plan was well crafted and well executed and, certainly, most of my guests played their part without ever knowing they were helping you dispose of an unwanted parasite. An exquisite performance that ended in a final act filled with chaos… Chaos that revealed team RWEBY as its sole benefactor."

I swallowed heavily and my eyes focused, futilely trying to make out the man's expression. Dread slowly began to claw at my mind for if this man knew of our plan then he might just know why we put it into action. Given I could not see his face, I had no way of knowing; precautions would have to be taken either way.

I widened my stance minutely and rubbed my knuckles over Blake's, the action hidden behind Ruby's body. Immediately, the faunus stilled and I thought I saw Yang nudge the girl's foot with her own.

'_Gotta keep Blake calm,' _I acknowledged. Ruby and Weiss would have to deal with Hagel Schnee for the time being. Yang and I would be necessary to make sure our faunus teammate did not act out. This was one of her greatest fears, after all… being a faunus in the middle of Schnee territory was dangerous enough but being _outed _as a faunus after her team lied to protect her?

Even more so.

Her name would be known everywhere and if there was anything the girl feared more than the White Fang's ambitions, it could only be recognition.

"W-we had our reasons to remove Coco Adel," Ruby said, her voice smoothing out after she cleared her throat. "I hope you did not find the brief disruption of the night's festivities upsetting."

"Oh, I did," the man admitted and, as one, my team stilled. I nudged Blake's hand again and entwined my fingers with hers even as Yang shifted closer on her other side.

"A young girl offended one of my most valuable business partners by brazenly bringing up his disgrace of a son in the middle of my ball. _My _ball. A _Schnee _ball. The insolence necessary to do such a thing is… immense," he said, his voice low enough to cause the hair on the back of my neck to stand on end. "I was incensed, certainly, and had her removed at once."

The man drew in a breath even as I traced my thumb over Blake's knuckles. The girl was shaking slightly and I wasn't far behind her. The air felt colder now and the room itself seemed smaller. More menacing. Darker.

The red orb – something I admittedly forgot about – lashed out and inadvertently caused me to tighten my grip on the faunus' hand as I fought off its advance. My purple Aura was still there in enough force to shut it down but should the volatile energy keep trying to escape…

Blake squeezed my hand and I breathed in slowly through my nose, purging my mind of any and all worries until only a soothing calm was left. I would need to be careful, now. More than ever, I needed to stay calm.

"I apologize," Ruby intoned, bowing her head slightly. "If you wish for us to leave-"

"Hardly," the man declared in his loudest voice yet. It silenced my leader and served to bring any and all attention back to him. His was an authoritative tone, now. Deep and booming, respect was not so much expected as it was a given. "I _was _incensed. But then, Alrmady Alssulb mentioned my very own daughter bringing up a rumor that Griffel Tavla was, in fact, _pleased _with his son. My daughter knows better than that. Do you not?"

"Of course, father," Weiss replied promptly.

"Of course," the man parroted. "Of course… Admittedly, I wrote it off as a mistake. A coincidence. The product of my daughter spending too much time at Beacon Academy, amongst students without a single clue how to interact with the powers that be in this world… how very foolish I was. How cleverly you played even _me_."

I squeezed Blake's hand once more and then loosened my fingers. The girl imitated me and, in short order, my left hand was free once more. Immediately, I brought it over to my other hand, behind my back.

"You see," Hagel Schnee continued. "Yagaan Sarnai then approached me a short time later and spoke of how Ye'lo Malamig and my very own daughter told her of new found wealth in the form of a mine on Tavla's land. A falsification, I knew. But still, I grew curious. Twice, now, my own flesh and blood had spread lies – why?"

Slowly, carefully, even as the man spoke, I tightened my grip on the orb and pressed my palms inward. My Aura quashed the tiny thing's protests even as its prison grew ever more suffocating. But as its space evaporated, its protests grew more and more fervent. Gradually, I felt heat start to build up in between my fingers.

In front of me, Ruby visibly swallowed and raised her chin ever so slightly. She squared herself and, even as I stared at her moonlit form, a new found respect overtook my mind. This was the girl that, not even three months ago, bumbled into getting our team into a bad hierarchy. The girl whose spontaneous heroics nearly led to my death when we went after Jaune. The girl who worried and fretted and wanted so badly for her team to be friends and for everything to be right in the world. This world that tried her time and time again so brutally and so repetitively. So mercilessly.

But she did not crumble. Ruby Rose did not retreat or wilt under the pressure placed upon her shoulders. She adapted. She evolved. She grew.

She overcame being two years younger than her classmates. She overcame her social awkwardness. She overcame her nagging doubts over being team RWEBY's leader. She overcame her penchant to make rash decisions. She overcame. She surpassed every test put before her and she improved herself and her team by leaps and bounds simply by being herself.

And, now, she even proved capable of standing before what was possibly the most powerful man on the planet without flinching. She could treat him as an equal. Something that I knew I could not manage, not after what he put Weiss through. Not after the discord his company stirred up amongst my family's community.

No, I was not strong enough to face this man, not without lashing out. Not without being affected by his demeanor. His presence.

But Ruby?

'_She's stronger than me,' _I realized, my shoulder slackening. Gooseflesh developed on my arms even as I watched her. _'Is this how she feels when she watches me reason through problems?'_

Time and time again, Remnant tried to tear her down.

Time and time again, Ruby Rose beat it back.

"I think you know why she lied, Hagel," my leader said. "You know why we spread that information. You know why Coco Adel approached Griffel Tavla. You even know why we had to do all of that in the first place."

The red orb struggled mightly even as the Schnee patriarch chuckled lowly in his throat but adrenaline was flooding my body now because when we stood as a team, _no one _could beat us. Not Schnee. Not Torchwick. Not the White Fang and _certainly _not some stupid orb! Ruby would have my support in _everything _she did!

Emboldened by the girl's presence between myself and Schnee, my palms collapsed on the energy and it immediately dug into my skin, cutting away at my flesh and burning my hands in the same way it had twice before. But I was ready for it. My jaw tightened ever so slightly but I made certain to stamp out any other indicator that I was in pain before it appeared.

No one would beat us.

"Oh, you are an old soul," the man intoned as his chortling faded, his free hand falling atop the one placed on the surface of his desk. "Then, Ruby, you must know what a scandal would follow if your plot was revealed?"

Blake tensed next to me even as a flash of purple escaped my hands and briefly illuminated her wide-eyed look of anticipation. On my other side, Weiss carefully picked up her feet and moved backward a step, toward me, until she was just behind my right shoulder.

"Yeah," Ruby conceded. "But I also know you have nothing to gain by outing Blake."

The man did not respond and the room immediately fell into a delicate silence because of that fact.

Weiss moved again, placing herself close enough to my side that our elbows were touching. That oddity caught my attention; the girl's focus remained on her father and Ruby, though-

Another flash of purple escaped my fingers even as I started to pull my hands apart. It illuminated Blake, to my left, again but any hint of light was snuffed out by the Schnee heiress' presence just behind me on my right.

'_Smart girl,' _I realized belatedly even as the man in front of team RWEBY leaned forward, just enough to reveal his chin in the moon's light.

"Indeed, I have nothing to gain," Schnee intoned slowly before he paused and inhaled audibly through his nose. "I remain impressed, Ruby Rose. You and your team have exceeded any other that I have seen before you, even those in Atlas… Perhaps… Perhaps I _will _send your younger sibling to Beacon Academy, daughter."

"I would find that most pleasing," Weiss stated, her voice taking on a breathy quality. Together with the fact that her eyes slightly widened told me that Winter's potential presence at Beacon meant a lot to her. Never mind the fact that I knew how much she cared for her younger sister.

"I am sure you would," the man responded, his head never even budging from its focus upon Ruby. "But that is a matter for another day. Today, in the here and now, I believe I have an offer that you will find most beneficial, team RWEBY."

The man leaned back, out of the moonlight and into the confines of his chair once more.

"We like diamonds – they're a girl's best friend, but I think explosions are better," Yang muttered, nudging Blake with her elbow. The faunus shifted with the impact and leaned into my side even as I returned my left hand to my front pocket. In my right one, behind my back, the orb remained contained and my purple Aura, replenished.

"I am afraid explosions are in very short supply within Spotlight Citadel," the head of Schnee Dust Company responded, monotone.

Weiss – who had tensed so much when Yang spoke that she hit my right arm and nearly made me lose control of the red energy – returned to her 'heiress pose' beside me. Shoulders back. Spine straight. The whole nine yards. I, on the other hand, couldn't be bothered with assuming a more dignified posture. Not now, anyway… the fact that the man hadn't responded negatively to my blonde teammate was telling. He was comfortable enough with the conversation that some humor could be inserted without any penalty.

Trust Yang Xiao Long to test her limits with the head of Schnee Dust Company.

Schnee sighed suddenly and I thought I saw his shoulders slacken. "Daughter," he stated, causing Weiss to lift her chin ever so slightly. "Why are you so close to Mr. Melkweg right now? No arrangements have been made between the two of you and I have not heard of any interest from either party in pursuing a lasting agreement. Thus, personal space must be respected. I taught you better."

"Of course, father," the girl demurred, shuffling away from me with her head bowed. "I was only-"

"My apologies, Hagel," Ruby cut in softly. "I told Weiss to stay close to Enten tonight. I did not mean to offend you."

The man stilled for a moment, then: "I see," he said slowly. "And your reason?"

"Is my own."

The man hummed low in his throat. "That may be, but that is my daughter, Ruby Rose."

"Your daughter, yes, but she is also my ser- companion. A member of team RWEBY. She is mine to command."

Silence fell over the room because _holy shit Ruby_ what were you doing? I caught a flash of yellow in the corner of my eye and glanced toward Yang as best I could without moving my head. The girl arched her eyebrows and glanced at her younger sister, a grin on her face.

"You play a dangerous game, Ruby Rose."

"With all due respect, Hagel Schnee, danger is my profession."

The man swallowed and his fingers shifted upon the surface of his desk. His free hand disappeared into his lap.

Ruby, in front of me, remained silent with her hands held behind her back. The pantyhose on her legs and the dark heels made her look far more elegant, far more regal and refined than did her normal tights and boots. Add to that the simple yet beautiful blood-red and black dress and she looked every bit the formidable leader she was playing-

'_Not playing, certainly not playing.'_

Ruby was a formidable leader. I could ask for no one better to head our team.

"Your team," Hagel Schnee wondered, leaning forward slightly. "Team RWEBY… you will go far. This I know."

"Thank you H-"

"But take care," the man continued, his voice nothing more than a growl. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. "You are young. Vulnerable. Prone to missteps and susceptible to the consequences that follow them.

"You see, Ruby, you have me in something of a tight spot," the man admitted, returning to the shadowed embrace of his high-backed chair. "My daughter _will _succeed and so your team will succeed. The Schnee family demands no less."

Weiss froze next to me, statuesque in her motionless appearance and glowing in her beauty. Ruby, as if she meant to purposefully contrast her pale partner, crossed her arms then. The folds her dress swayed minutely and the dark cloth on her legs shown in the moonlight as she brought her feet together.

"Already, though, my blood has failed to lead a team. She has failed to live up to her name. She stands among her peers, rather than above them," the man continued, either ignorant to Weiss' slumping shoulders or callously disregarding them entirely. "But you, Ruby, you… "

My lips drifted downward into a scowl even as the energy in my hand stirred. Beside me, Blake exhaled sharply from her nose and Yang released a rumbling growl, low and barely audible, from her throat.

This situation was distasteful, now, and the resentment I felt for the man was only growing by the second. Hearing him tear down Weiss even as she stood next to me was infuriating enough that it almost drove me to speak up. And if _I _was so close to protesting then I could only imagine what was going through both Yang and Ruby's minds.

Still, none of us spoke. None of us, I thought, wanted to risk offending the man.

'_The first causality of war,' _I noted grimly. _'Perhaps our innocence isn't first... Maybe it's our integrity.'_

"Schnee Dust Company achieved what it has by making smart decisions. Intelligent decisions… Supporting team RWEBY is one of those decisions. I am willing-"

"No thank you, Mr. Schnee."

Silence, once more, fell over the room. It swooped in suddenly and abruptly and brought with it a hush, expectant in nature. The room's occupants, as one, seemed to hold their collective breath.

It felt good to hear Ruby say that. So, so, so good. But I could not deny the chill creeping up my spine.

Refusing Schnee Dust Company was… well, it could be social suicide. It could be crippling to team RWEBY. It could be our deathblow. Satisfying though it may be, now, it was not wise. It was not wise at all.

"I'm sorry?" Schnee asked quietly.

Ruby cleared her throat and lifted her chin. "I said: No thank you, Mr. Schnee."

My breath left me in a whoosh and I was quite certain that was Weiss gasping on my right.

Slowly, the man in front of us placed his free hand atop the one still on his desk. For several seconds, the only sounds in the room were those of Weiss trying futilely to get her breathing under control and Ruby's fingers fiddling with the hem of her dress.

"Then we have nothing more to speak of," Schnee said at length.

* * *

I emerged from the study first and I welcomed the colder temperature of Spotlight Citadel's halls with immense gratitude. Toward the end of the meeting, the atmosphere had become absolutely suffocating in the Schnee patriarch's personal office.

I heard heels hit the ground behind me and turned to find Weiss stumbling from the room's darkened embrace next.

"Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no," she muttered, moving forward, a blank look in her eyes. "No. No…"

"Weiss," I asked quietly, grasping her shoulder with my free hand. When she did not respond, I continued: "Come on, let's get you back downstairs."

"Downstairs," the girl repeated even as Blake and Yang exited the study side-by-side. "Downstairs. Yes. Downstairs… to the ball."

"Right," I said slowly, tossing a helpless glance toward my partners. "We'll get you something to eat, alright?"

"Yeah. Yes," she said, blinking slowly. Her eyes were wider than they normally were.

"What's up," Yang asked, eyeing the shorter, white haired girl.

I shrugged even as Ruby paced out of the study. Silently, the doors closed behind her and she made her way over to us.

"Woooooooo," the girl breathed, her shoulders slumping. "That was super tense huh?"

"It was… something," Blake agreed even as I urged Weiss to move toward the hallway with a hand placed between her shoulder blades. The material of which her dress was made felt soft and smooth to the touch.

"Something… that's a good way to describe it," I muttered as the five of us left the foyer. The long hall stretched out before us, filled with softly glowing walls and attractive, clear dust windows that brought with them a serene atmosphere. "We might've just pissed off the man that knows about your you-know-what."

The faunus' eyes widened and Yang growled low in her throat, her hands curling into fists.

"If he tells anyone, I'll-"

"Do nothing," Weiss snapped, abruptly straightening. I stepped back, startled, even as she turned to face the taller girl. "Nothing. We can't- We never should have refused him. That was… It-"

"Weiss," Ruby muttered, her eyes widening and her eyebrows arching. She put a hand on the girl's upper arm. "You aren't really saying we shoulda worked with him after he said all that nasty stuff-"

"That's exactly what I'm saying!"

"Okay," I muttered, turning toward the inner wall to try the handle of a nearby door. The girls were not moving any longer and it looked like they planned to stay that way for quite some time.

"I'm not gonna work together with someone like that," Ruby decided, her arm retreating.

"Yeah," Yang growled. "He was totally out of line. You're worth more-"

"This team would have benefited from his support," Weiss argued, her voice quiet but shrill.

"Girls," I inserted, pushing slightly on the door. It gave.

"We don't need support if it means working with someone like that," Ruby returned even as Blake nodded beside her.

"What," the Schnee heiress said, widened eyes glancing from Ruby to Yang to Blake. "Am I the only one who sees how much we stand to gain? Schnee Dust Company is a _worldwide _empire-"

"Polarizing," Blake muttered, a frown on her lips. One of her hands fisted in the purple silks that covered her form. "Schnee support means picking sides."

"Girls," I tried again, leaning into the room. It looked to be a simple meeting room, a parlor of sorts. The first one down the hallway, actually, which would put it adjacent to the foyer we were just in.

"_I _am a Schnee," Weiss reminded the faunus. "Unless you want _me _off the team then we are already on a side!"

"No one wants you to leave," Ruby stated emphatically, her arms waving in front of her. "And no one's saying that your dad wouldn't've helped us! I just think-"

"You're making decisions with your gut again-"

"Hey," Yang interjected, placing one of her arms in between her sister and the Schnee heiress. "She didn't make any kind of bad decision."

"Girls," I spat, loud as I dared, opening my right hand briefly and illuminating the four of them in purple, ethereal light. It drew their attention to me as a whole, all of them wide eyed. The only exception was Blake – the faunus was instead staring through narrowed eyes at the red orb contained within my Aura.

"Inside," I snapped. "Now."

"Someone's cranky," Yang muttered lowly. The girl she moved passed me all the same, her heels clicking delicately on the floor.

"I have a right to be frustrated when you four choose the middle of a hallway to air our dirty laundry to the world."

Ruby sighed as she stepped into the room behind Weiss. "We weren't gonna-"

"What was that," Blake asked suddenly, the sole member of team RWEBY still in the hallway.

"What was what?"

"The ball inside that energy," the faunus said, her arms crossing and her feet set.

"Nothing," I grunted, stepping aside so she could enter.

The faunus didn't move, though. "Enten-"

"Nothing I'm going to speak of out here."

She huffed but, finally, strode forward, into the room and out of the hallway. The open hallway where anyone and their mother – or in this case, any couple that decided to find some privacy – could hear us.

The moonlight intruding into our makeshift meeting room was abruptly snuffed out when I closed the door behind the faunus. She stalked over to the far side of the room and leaned up against a bookcase even as Yang and Ruby settled into easy chairs placed in the center of the area. They were facing a large video screen used for what looked to be communication, if the camera resting atop it were any indicator. It was just under that object that team RWEBY's last member chose to rest, upon a less ornate chair that was shoved up against the wall.

In addition to providing Weiss with a backrest, though I knew she wouldn't use it, the walls also supplied the room with its light, just like they did the rest of Spotlight Citadel. There were no windows in this space, only two bookcases, the screen, a small table between the two easy chairs and three simpler chairs placed around the outside edge of the room.

I sighed heavily, slowly wandering across the length of the room and placing myself on the wall next to Weiss. I had a feeling she would find herself at odds with the other members of our team very soon – at the very least, I could offer her my support.

'_Shoulda heard Schnee out, at the very least,' _I thought.

"Some night, huh," Yang asked, breaking the silence that had fallen over us and shaking her head. "Your family sure knows how to party, Weiss."

The white haired girl smiled. "Welcome to my life."

"Don't sound too happy now," I chided, rubbing my eyes.

"Least Enten got some action," my blonde partner quipped. She offered me a thumbs up. "Emerald was _all over_ you. Like. _All. Over. _You."

"She's clearly infatuated with you," Weiss muttered, one her hands fisting in her dress.

"You sound like you have a problem with that," I acknowledged slowly, my face heating. Yang was making slurping noises, now, and Ruby was trying futilely to stifle her giggling behind her fist.

The white haired girl glanced up at me out of the corner of her eye. "I don't like her. She…" The girl shook her head. "I don't like her."

"Smells weird," Blake added, nodding at Weiss. "Like… Like a lot of the smells I used to encounter in the White Fang."

"She and Mercury _are _fighting them," I reminded her. "They're Ironwood's version of Ozpin's team RWEBY."

The faunus shrugged and declined to say anything further, instead adjusting one of the straps of her dress.

"Well, at least someone had fun," Yang said at length, one eyebrow arched as she crossed her legs at the knee.

"With as much leg as you're showing, I'm surprised you didn't enjoy yourself too," Weiss observed.

The blonde glanced down at herself. "Am I?"

"Am I," I parroted. "As if she doesn't know exactly what she's doing."

The girl grinned and looked back up at me, adjusting the length of dress that had fallen away from her thigh as she did so. "Can't keep this much awesome contained with so little cloth."

In the chair next to her, Ruby sighed. "I need a leg slit, too," she bemoaned, picking glumly at her own, simpler dress as she did so.

A grimace overtook my face as memories of various men approaching Yang throughout the night came to me. I was quite certain that some of them were twice her age.

"No you don't."

"No you don't."

Yang grinned at me and I returned the expression even as Ruby groaned.

"Great. Now there's two of them."

"It's… not usually attention that I enjoy," Weiss admitted, breathing in deeply and sending an array of glittering lights across the room as she did so. "Next time, we can trade dresses, Ruby."

The younger girl blinked once, then twice as her eyebrows rose. "But… I'm not your size…"

Weiss' eye twitched. "It was a figurative offer, Ruby."

"Pretty sure she just called you fat," I offered as an aside.

My leader gasped. "No! I wasn't calling Weiss fat! She's super thin and graceful and elegant! And she's definitely not fat. _Enten_."

"Your words," I responded, my hands out in front of me and my shoulders raised in a shrug. "Not mine."

Yang sighed dramatically, throwing herself over the side of her armchair in the process. "Children."

Weiss released a laugh behind her hand and Ruby chortled alongside her. A smirk grew on my face and I saw the expression mirrored on Blake's even as our blonde partner returned to her upright position in the chair. The five of us lapsed into silence then and, slowly, I saw the levity leave the girls' faces. Smiles and grins and smirks turned into frowns and grimaces. Shoulders drooped and eyes narrowed.

"So…" Yang started.

"So," Ruby responded. "We need to talk about Schnee Dust Company and Weiss' father."

I swallowed once even as an image of the man himself flashed through my mind. His face, darkened and hidden by shadow. His hand, stationary on his desk. His focus, unmoving. Rigid.

A grimace pulled at my lips even as the red ball of energy reminded me of its presence in my hand.

"And… that," Ruby finished, nodding toward my right hand as my Aura rebuffed the energy's escape attempt. A flash of purple light briefly emanated from within my fingers.

My focus turned from Ruby to Blake, then to Yang and, finally, to Weiss. In each girl's face I saw varying amounts of interest and all of them were studying the purple glow from within my hand intently.

Slowly, I lifted the limb and uncurled my fingers, dowsing the room in ethereal purple light.

"This," I muttered, watching the red energy lash out at the purple containing it. "…I found it in Emerald's forehead, she said-"

"Woah, woah, woah, woah," Yang inserting, waving her hands in front of her face. "You don't get to just skim over that detail, big guy. Either you and greeny invented a new way to do the nasty or-"

"Yang," Ruby scolded, her voice shrill and her cheeks flushed.

The blonde shrugged. "You never know with Enten. Maybe his old man skills had her yelling his-"

"Would you _please_ control yourself," Weiss said, her voice far louder than usual.

"Maybe you can expand on that, Enten," Blake asked even as Yang blew a raspberry at Schnee heiress. The white haired girl shuddered, muttering something about Ye'lo under her breath.

I cleared my throat. "Sure – I was out on the balcony, enjoying the weather and generally-"

"Grandpa Cold," Yang muttered to her sister, causing the girl to break out into a giggling fit.

"_Generally," _I said loudly, eying my blonde partner. She only winked at me and, with a sigh, I continued: "Generally secluding myself away from all the people who didn't need to see me. Emerald found me, we talked- _Yang. Please."_

"What," the girl blurted, her eyes wide even as she stopped putting her pointer finger through a ring formed by her other fingers. "I was listening!"

"Sometimes… How did your dad put up with you?"

"With a lot of patience," Ruby inserted, a smirk on her face.

"And tolerance," Blake added. The girl tossed her head, removing the strand of hair that was between her eyes.

Yang scoffed and slouched back into her chair. "Dad loves me. I tell him he's a _fungi_ every chance I get!"

"Wow," I muttered even as silence overtook us. I saw Ruby mouth 'fungi' and then immediately roll her eyes after she was done.

"Huh? Huh? Get it? 'Cause fungi sounds like fun guy?!"

"We got it," Weiss assured her, sniffing once. "We certainly feel his pain."

"Good," Yang nodded, a wide grin on her face.

I rubbed at my eyes with my free hand even as a lapse in the conversation took over the room again. Ruby and Blake both sported unimpressed looks and Weiss was examining her finger nails.

So of course Yang would look incredibly pleased with herself.

"Anyway," I said, my voice displaying the exasperation I felt better than I could perceive it mentally. I glanced at my blonde partner and arched an eyebrow; the girl gave me two thumbs up. I licked my lips and resisted the urge to sigh.

"So this power. It was in Emerald's forehead. It was hurting her and when I touched it- _thank you Yang_ – it burned so hot it dissolved the Aura on my hand in less than a few seconds."

"Dissolved," Ruby asked even as her sister's shoulders slumped.

"Burned away, maybe? I don't know for certain, all I know is that my Aura either vanished when it got near this thing," I continued, holding the red energy aloft, "or it got itself away from it as fast as it could."

"Then the purple energy," Blake asked, striding forward until she was mere inches from the contained sphere. The purples and reds splashed across her face in vivid waves, painting her skin and lighting up her slit pupils. She looked otherworldly. Inhuman. Or… in-faunus, as it were.

"Mine," I said slowly, taking the orb away from her face. "I… I think I found out something new about my Semblance today."

I brought my hands together in front of my torso and gradually tightened them until the purple glow had vanished from the room entirely. My fingers coiled inwards further, though and the heat began to build again. Measuredly, I pressed my palms inward.

"Hey! That burns you," Ruby protested, rising from her easy chair and hurrying over. The girl grasped at my hands and abruptly pulled them back again. "Hot!"

"Don't touch," I grunted. My Aura was all but obliterated now. The orb was starting to lash out at my skin. "Just watch."

"But it's hurting you!"

"Trust me," I returned, attempting a smile but ending up with a grimace instead. A drop of blood managed to escape my fingers and-

And promptly evaporated into raw, ethereal purple energy. Seeing it happen again, this time with more clarity than I'd ever seen it happen before, made it real for me. It solidified the fact that my blood could… transform into this purple Aura.

Blake gasped, her mouth behind her hand. On my other side, Weiss' eyes narrowed.

"What," the heiress asked the faunus even as Ruby glanced between. The clicking of heels signaled Yang's approach.

"His blood," the black haired girl muttered, her eyes wide. "It- There!"

I glanced down at my hands just in time to see another spot of red make it through my fingers. I squeezed the digits together and the liquid started to pool between them-

Weiss gasped, this time. "It- It's gone!"

"Yeah," Ruby agreed, her face mere inches from my fingers. "Into the purple stuff. Is that Aura?"

I shrugged and began to pull my hands apart. Purple energy seeped out between my loosening fingers and I promptly took control of it; it rushed inward, between my palms, and wrapped the red energy in a suffocating embrace once more. The excess lingered around my hands, resting idly upon my skin until it needed to be used.

"I think so," I verbalized as I separated my limbs completely. My eyes glanced up to find the rest of team RWEBY huddled around me, all of them focused on my hands and the volatile energy contained within my Aura.

Blake's eyes were locked on the tiny ball and showed no sign of moving any time soon. She wasn't even blinking – it reminded me terribly of a cat when its attention was focused. Yang was less intense than our faunus partner but she was still observing the proceedings, a hand resting on her hip. At my side, Weiss leaned back and glanced up at the ceiling while Ruby looked up at my face, her mouth opened ever so slightly.

"Emerald said she got it from a Grimm," I verbalized quietly. "A _glowing _Grimm."

My leader sucked in a breath even as the other three members of team RWEBY fell into a hushed silence.

"Like… Like the one we saw in that forest," Ruby noted. She extended a finger toward the red orb, this time stopping her hand a safe distance away. "So… _that_ was in a Grimm?"

"Yeah," I said, nodding. "Or so she claims, anyway. The Beowulf we saw was yellow, remember?"

"I remember."

"Who couldn't," Weiss inserted, a shudder racking her body. She shook her head. "That thing was… nightmarish."

I couldn't help but agree. The very idea of a Grimm infused with Aura – or whatever this red energy was – terrified me. The fact that the beast in question was of the same type that slaughtered my father-

_-another howl, dual toned, cruel and enraged split the night and a shiver ran down my spine even as Ultimatum-_

An exhalation through my nose and a quick shake of my shoulders dispelled the memory from my mind and eased the tension creeping up my back. Slowly, I opened my eyes – _'When did I shut them?' _– to find my team still in various states of introspection.

An elbow impacted my side and I turned to find Yang offering me a small smile. I returned the gesture and nudged her shoulder with mine, feeling a great deal lighter. More at ease.

"So… what do we do," Weiss asked slowly, her brow furrowed.

"We get rid of it," Blake said at once. "Who knows what this thing can do?"

I frowned and opened my mouth to speak but Ruby beat me to it.

"How long have you had that, Enten?"

"Uhh," I stammered, blinking. "Maybe… fifteen minutes? Twenty?"

The younger girl nodded even as team RWEBY's faunus glanced her way.

"You can't honestly be thinking about keeping it?"

"How often do you have to, uhh, replenish your purple Aura?"

Blake scoffed but I, like Ruby, ignored her.

"I've done it… four times? So every five minutes or so."

The girl's eyes narrowed even as Weiss straightened, her eyebrows arched. Next to me, Yang grunted in what I thought was surprise.

"Are you light-headed," Ruby asked. "Woozy? Dizzy?"

"No, no and no."

"That's a lot of blood to lose," Yang muttered even as Blake folded her arms across her chest.

"I'm fine," I assured her. "I can hold onto it."

"But you shouldn't," Blake protested, her eyes narrowed as she got in my face. "Who knows what the White Fang have done to that Aura!? Just get rid of it!"

"What they did to it before doesn't matter _now_. It's not being used by a hostile and without a master, power is just power. It's neutral. Only dangerous if uncontrolled."

"You don't know that. It clearly hurts you to keep it contained - it might be a slow acting poison or an explosive… I don't know what! Keeping it around is dangerous and you know it."

"Don't tell me what I know," I shot back, scowling. "I know next to nothing about this power and that's what I'm trying to change. The White Fang is using it. We need to study it!"

"It hurts," Blake growled. "Isn't that enough? What more do you need?"

"No! No it's not enough," I spat. "Because _when _this gets used against us out in the field, I want to know what it does."

"Enten," Ruby stated, eying the red ball in my hand even as she held her Scroll aloft in front of her. The device's red light – its indicator that it was recording – was lit up. "Dump it."

"Wha-"

"Enten," the younger girl said again. "Please. Dump it. It's not worth keeping around. We'll tell Headmaster Ozpin about it and see what he has to say but you are not holding onto that thing, got it?"

I grunted, a frown on my face. Telling Ozpin was a given but holding onto the power itself was worth so much more… I could control it and if the White Fang were using it in their Grimm – the fact that they even had Grimm in the first place was a scary enough prospect – then I wanted time to dissect it. I wanted to know why it was caustic and what made my purple Aura able to resist it. I wanted to learn. To know!

"Enten," Ruby repeated, grabbing my chin and forcing me to meet her gaze. "Understand?"

"Yes," I said shortly, clenching my eyes shut. "I'll get rid of it once we're done here."

"Once we're done with this conversation," the girl specified.

"Yes, mother."

"Good," she grinned, twirling around to face the easy chairs again. She immediately started to flounce over to the nearest one. "Now, I believe we have one more pressing matter before we can go back to the par-tay! Not that your purple Aura isn't _super cool _Enten, but I'm pretty fed up with this room already."

"Someone got in trouble," Yang sang under her breath even as Blake and Weiss followed our leader over to the chairs. The three of them sounded like a tap-dancing team.

"Shut it," I growled under my breath.

The blonde scoffed and abruptly reached down to touch the red orb. I started to jerk my hand away from her but she caught it with her other one.

'_She was always a little faster than I was_,' I noted, relaxing my arm. _'If she wants to get burnt then that's her prerogative.'_

But, to my eternal surprise, when the blonde put her hand near the red orb, she didn't immediately pull her arm away.

"Huh," she grunted, her lips curling into a smirk. "Not impressed. It's like a little space heat- Ouch!"

She abruptly jerked away from my hand and the energy contained therein, her smirk now transformed into a grimaced.

"Someone got burned," I sang under my breath even as she shook her hand.

"Can it," she growled. "It got hot faster than I thought it would."

"Guess you just can't keep up with me."

"You know this reminds me of the time you thought you could beat me before I kicked your ass… When was that again? Oh! Right! Every time we've fought!"

"Not every time," I protested weakly. She did have a lead…

"Right," the blonde agreed, arching her eyebrows. "I forgot. The record's only 162-58, in my favor, of course!"

"59."

"Ties don't count, dork."

"Then stop counting it in your-"

"Hey," Ruby called from across the room. "Should we find you guys a separate room?! Get over here!"

I blinked once, then twice. A glance at Yang showed me her mouth had dropped open. Her eyes, like mine, were widened. Her cheeks, like mine, were flushed again.

"You know," I noted as we started toward the rest of our team. "I don't think I like assertive Ruby anymore."

"She's a monster you helped create."

"You're not blameless, either."

"Well," Yang said loudly, tossing a smile my way as we reached the chairs. "I for one am _proud _of my widdle baby sister!"

The blonde promptly threw herself over the chair that Ruby was sitting in, wrapping her arms around the girl's shoulders and planting herself in the younger girl's lap.

"Ach," the dark haired girl spat. "Yang! Off!"

"But I wuve my baby s-"

"Yang," Ruby protested. "Sit in your chair! Go! …Sit!"

"I just want to show you how much I appreciate you," Yang pleaded, rubbing her face against Ruby's as best she could. Given how much the younger girl was struggling, it looked more painful than it did comforting.

"Off," the younger girl grunted as she finally got her arms in between herself and her elder sister. The blonde went tumbling to the ground even as Blake put a hand over her eyes.

"Ow," Yang grunted as her backside impacted the floor with a jolt. Her eyes were wide and her mouth was slightly open. She glanced up at me and then at her sister, only to find the girl pointing to the other chair.

"Go."

"But-"

"Yang. _Go."_

The blonde's shoulders slumped and she crossed her legs, grumbling under her breath even as Weiss released a massive sigh.

"Not so proud now that you're the target huh," I sniped at my partner as she shuffled around on the ground.

"You think you're so high and mighty," she said, glancing up at me, a mischievous smirk on her face. Quickly, she reached out and grabbed my leg before I could pull it away from her. "Let's see how you like it down here!"

She tugged and I promptly lost my balance. My instincts kicked in immediately and I curled inward to try and better absorb the fall. My backside hit the ground first but it was at an angle, given the fact that Yang was holding onto one of my legs. Thus, my right arm was thrown out to further absorb the-

"No," Weiss shrieked suddenly, jumping to her feet.

I jerked the hand away from the ground, surprised and startled because the Schnee heiress _never _screamed. Instead I ended up half curled into a ball and my shoulder landed on the floor first. My breath left me forcefully even as my right hand was crushed between solid dust and my torso.

"Ah! Shit," I hissed, uncurling myself as quickly as possible to get away from the burning energy. Glancing down at myself, I found that the red energy never touched the ground but the same could not be said for my shirt.

I shot an unimpressed look at Yang even as the blonde inspected the burn on my shirt. Weiss, on the other hand, was eying the floor.

"Sorry," the girl said emphatically. "I _totally _didn't mean to burn you or… or, you know, almost get all of us killed…"

"I hope not," I scoffed even as Ruby's shoulders slumped.

"Close one," the girl muttered.

Next to her, Weiss straightened. "Indeed. But the floor looks to be fine. All it takes is one instant, one mistake, and Spotlight Citadel is gone."

"Maybe you should just get rid of that now," Blake suggested, eying the red energy currently cradled in my palm.

I grunted and pushed myself to my feet, offering Yang a hand once I was standing again. "Yeah, if I'm going to get rid of it anyway… Might as well-"

My sentence ended abruptly there, however, because a knock sounded from our door.

* * *

**A/N: **Here we go… Here we go! Here we go! Here we go! We're about to throw some shit at the fan folks! Queue up a plot twist – ETA: two weeks from now!

That infuriating half-spolier aside, I lied – there'll be more than 4 or 5 chapters to this fic after all. I thought of something fun to do and since it was completely in character and made the plot infinitely more interesting, I did it. Thus, my new estimate on Reiteration's remaining chapters is 6 or 7!

In other news, that's also why I usually only answer your questions vaguely – the plot to this story often develops as I write it. It's nothing personal, I swear!

As for that **red ball of energy**, it has a role to play and it's certainly not Aura – Enten figured that out fairly quickly. Emerald indicated that it came from a Grimm, a glowing one, even. Whether or not you believe her is up to you!

And on **Winter being younger than Weiss**: that was a chance brought about back at the beginning of the fic. When I was writing this earlier, we didn't know if she was younger or older so I made the call to have her be younger here. Some plot points revolve around her age, thus, the change stayed!

Lastly, I have an announcement to make: two authors started a **death battle** fic of sorts for RWBY OCs on this site. The authors' names are: MeteoriteCreature and Sora. The story's name: RWBY – Battles Between Two. The reason I'm telling you this: MeteoriteCreature contacted me about using Enten in the fic and I gave them the green light. Didn't tell them about the purple Aura bit but… I have to keep some secrets to myself! At any rate, give it a look, as of today it only has one fight but I love the concept!

**XenotheWise135: **Pyrrha has a time of death, just like Ruby, Weiss, Enten, Blake and Yang! Now whether or not those times will occur within this story or its sequel is another matter… Thanks for your review!

**Nemrut: **I like the idea of Yang recording Enten when he monologues, if only she wasn't emotionally invested the points he argues! Winter is younger, yes, and their mother is not Elsa haha! Thanks for your thoughts!

**MrtheratedG**: Enten doesn't regret much – call it a flaw or a strength, it's generally true all the same. The wine glass conversation was referring to something else… Thanks for your review!

**DarkLord98**: You may be right, though you'll know for certain next chapter! Thanks for your thoughts!

**Glenloc: **On the pairings: that is a very good guess! Enten is more than willing to try things other people might shy away from, his sense of right and wrong has always been more vague than that of the girls on team RWEBY. Thanks for your review!

**Umbrardor: **I think you've got his Semblance pegged. I couldn't have said it better myself with only one exception: he tries so very hard to survive, so he uses every single bit of himself to do it. Thanks for your kind words!

**Name-Change**: I didn't want to mention you specifically hah – at any rate, Emerald's motives are always shrouded in secrecy, both in the show and in this fic. She operates in a similar way that Enten does… who knows what she thinks in reality? Who knows if she's telling the truth or being genuine? Methinks she can't be trusted! Thanks for your support!

**Victore chez: **What is it indeed about a glowing Grimm? RWEBY 'encountered' one when they sabotaged that White Fang facility but otherwise they've only seen normal ones. Thanks for your review!

**Xelguru: **Thanks for the heads up – I didn't know there was a RWBY subreddit, much less a fanfic thread. I'll start heading over there more often! Thanks for your review!

**Guest Numero Dos: **The wine glass conversation was more about a certain second year that he feels failed in her duties. All his opinion, though, nothing serious! Honest! As for the purple Aura – it wasn't born out of chance, his Semblance is a little more static than that. It's similar in practice to Cinder's glove though it doesn't automatically implant power into the user (obviously). Thanks for your thoughts!

**Isodrink: **He never intended to inject it into himself, he just wanted to hold onto it until he could put it in something to study it. As for the brashness of the decision… Yeah, hah, it was pretty brash but he saw a chance and took it. Unfortunately, his team disagrees with his thoughts. Bah. Thanks for your review!

**Riero: **No embarrassment necessary – this was the first I'd heard of those sites. I think I'll finish Reiteration first but once that's done, I'll check them out! Thanks for the heads up!

**Smithrooks: **Emerald? Manipulative? Never! Our Lord and Savior Wine Glass would not allow it! Thanks for your thoughts!

**Enigma infinite: **His notes were handwritten up until he was 8 (when he got the Scroll), at which point he just started to take them directly in his Scroll. As for the notes pre-8, he took pictures of them and destroyed the paper copies. Thanks for your thoughts!

**To my reviewers as a whole: **Thank you for your reviews, your thoughts, your input, your opinions and the time it took you to leave them! I appreciate each review and read through all of them! Thank you!

Till next time…

-Phailen


	36. Chapter 36

_Four hours later – The Great Sea, Schnee Military Transport_

Emotion.

It was a confusing subject for me, even now. Living two lives on such disparate worlds with so very different lifestyles on each one did me no favors with regard to my sanity, this I knew. In fact I was quite proud that I wasn't a _complete _raving lunatic yet, I was only perhaps half way there. At times it was incredibly difficult to reconcile my past life with this new one and the victim of that process was usually my mental stability.

Even now my mind was a jumbled mess of indecision and second guesses in the face of Remnant's latest curve ball. Part of me wanted to rage, to lash out, to yell and shout and scream until I was too tired to do anything else. Another portion of me wanted to comfort my team, to make sure that they were dealing with this better than I was. Finally, another part of me just wanted to give up.

That part won out.

'_You've lost your edge,' _I acknowledged, sullen and hunched over, even as the airship in which I sat shuddered. It was not luxurious by any means. The cramped interior – perhaps ten feet in length from tip to tip – could scarcely fit team RWEBY inside of it. The leather seats and exquisite tables of our Schnee ship were replaced by hard, unforgiving metal benches and heavy plated floors of a strictly utilitarian nature.

I heard Ruby mutter something to my right, in the cockpit of the ship, even as Weiss sniffled and released another shuddering breath.

My jaw clenched and I shook my head, frustration clawing at the edges of my mind. I did not toss around words like helpless lightly and I wasn't helpless, not right now, but I certainly felt like it. I could think of no way out of the latest mess in which team RWEBY found ourselves.

'_You've lost your touch,' _I noted once more, bitterly this time. The neutrality that I once enjoyed had long since been lost to me. I should have been able to focus enough to plan. To think. To plot.

But I could not. All I found myself capable of doing was moping, reflecting on how vastly outclassed we were.

Manipulating Coco Adel was to us as manipulating team RWEBY was to Hagel Schnee.

"-our main story tonight, an attack on the Schnee family's Spotlight Citadel in Atlas," a feminine voice said, emanating from Yang's Scroll. The blonde was sitting across from me in her ball gown, her hair still intricately styled atop her head. She looked so incredibly out of place in the dull metal interior of the airship.

"We heard that already, Yang," Blake muttered from my side. She wrapped her arms around her torso even as our ship shuddered again. Her shoulder bumped into mine. "Turn it off."

"There's gotta be something we missed," my other partner responded, her eyes wide and her voice shaky. "There _has _to be!"

"For those of you just joining us now, the suspects responsible for this attack are on the loose and very dangerous. Their pictures are behind me now: team RWEBY of Beacon Academy," the feminine voice continued, her tone neutral despite the jarring impact her words were having upon my mind. "In order: Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Enten Melkweg, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long. Preliminary evidence and recordings from the Citadel itself suggest that this team somehow smuggled in explosives during a confrontation in the ballroom."

"Yang," Blake pleaded even as Ruby glanced back into the rear of the ship from the cockpit.

"The motive behind this attempted attack is still unknown though Hagel Schnee, head of Schnee Dust Company, claims it is an act of White Fang aggression," Yang's Scroll continued, the screen flickering to a picture of the room where I fell to the ground, a smoldering crater in its center, smothered and contained by ice. "He claims Blake Belladonna hid her faunus nature and entered The Citadel with plans to destroy it. Several guests claim to have heard rumors stating that the girl is, in fact, nonhuman."

It was brilliantly done. The man assembled a plan in minutes that completely and utterly shut down any chance team RWEBY had of clearing our names. He sent a maid to the room we were in to tell us that we needed to leave and, like fools, we left in the very airship we sat in now, thinking that the man wanted us gone because we turned down his offer.

None of us even thought to question the maid when she told us that Sun and Jayd would be given separate transport back to Beacon Academy.

'_Played like a fiddle,' _I thought, dropping my head into my hands.

The feminine voice continued with her newscast, indifferent to the fact that her every word almost registered as a physical blow to me: "We've obtained one of the audio recordings that allegedly captures part of a conversation between team RWEBY before they were caught and forced to escape in one of SDC's airships. Let's listen to it now..."

"I'm fine," my voice sounded from the Scroll, my tone softer than normal. "I can hold onto it."

"But you shouldn't," Blake's voice responded, faster and angrier than my own. "Just get rid of it!"

"Enten," Ruby's voice said suddenly. "Dump it."

There was a short delay in the audio, then my voice responded in a growl: "I'll get rid of it once we're done here."

"Once we're done with this conversation."

"Yes, mother."

Yang growled under her breath as the audio recording stopped and the reporter appeared on the screen again. "That's not even what we said! That's not even how the conversation went!"

"Again," the reporter continued even as Blake brought her knees up to her chin and rested her head on my shoulder. I heard Weiss release a sob from the cockpit. "That was an audio recording that captured team RWEBY of Beacon Academy speaking. The first voice you heard was Enten Melkweg, the hunter-in-training believed to have held the explosives. The second was Blake Belladonna, accused White Fang sympathizer and the last was their leader, Ruby Rose.

"In addition to the audio recordings, Hagel Schnee released this statement when he brought the criminal charges against team RWEBY."

The display on the Scroll flickered once more and the SDC's logo, the same snowflake Weiss used, appeared on the screen followed promptly by the Schnee patriarch's low, scratchy voice.

"Schnee Dust Company is appalled and dismayed that Weiss Schnee aided a White Fang infiltrator in this attack," the man said even as the white haired girl herself released another sob. The airship rocked side to side suddenly and Blake latched onto my upper arm to keep herself stable. "Schnee Dust Company promotes civil discussion and feels that arguments need not ever be solved with violence. We are saddened and heart-broken by this act of betrayal but determined to move forward with a peaceful solution in the face of this aggression. We hope that our faunus brothers and sisters can find common ground with Schnee Dust Company in the future. Lastly, because she brazenly went against everything our family and community stands for, Weiss Schnee has been removed from her position as heiress of Schnee Dust Company and disowned from the Schnee family altogether."

"That liar," Yang growled, her hands shaking as she held her Scroll. At the front of the airship, I saw Weiss put her head in her hands and Ruby immediately wrap her arms around the girl's shoulders.

"Yang," the younger girl warned even as the white haired girl in her embrace started to shake, her body racked by sobs.

"Schnee Dust Company has asked for privacy and understanding while they attempt to recover from this thwarted attack. There is no indication that team RWEBY was acting on orders from Beacon Academy, Ozpin – the Academy's Headmaster – had this to say."

"I am aware of the charges brought against my students tonight and will cooperate with the relevant authorities to see justice done," Ozpin's voice echoed from the Scroll. It silenced the team as a whole – this was new to us. "I am certain that, as details are uncovered, my students will be absolved of any wrongdoing. Beacon Academy is a place of learning, integrity and honor. Her students are model citizens of Remnant dedicated to the protection of its people, human or faunus."

"Least Ozpin's got our back," Yang muttered, a sigh on her lips.

"Shut it off," Blake said again. "We've heard it before, it'll just start over-"

"We have recently received more information about team RWEBY from their fellow classmates at Beacon Academy," the reporter continued. "This footage is provided to us here at Atlas Global by Vale News Network."

The screen flickered then, prompting me to open my fingers just enough for me to see it.

"Yeah," Eik Verbrand of EMRD said, scratching at the back of his neck. "They've always kinda been loners, 'cept with team JYDE anyway. No one really sees them around campus outside class. Their leader though, Ruby? She's a good fighter. Really knows her way around weaponry."

The camera switched then to a view of Marrone Birch, Ruby's bully from DMND. "Them? No one likes them. Melkweg tried to kill one of my teammates and their leader shouldn't even be here! She's, like, twelve!"

I shut my eyes again even as the Scroll displayed Cardin Winchester, a smirk on his face. "Yeah, I know about 'em. Enten's a smart guy – kind of a dick though. They keep dueling class interesting, at least… always something goin' on with them."

"Oh, he tried to kill someone else now," Pyrrha's voice sounded in the airship next and I found a grin forming on my lips. "That marks the fourth time, perhaps his rotten attitude has finally caught up with him."

"Oh, Pyrrha," I muttered, my tone sardonic. "I love you too."

With every new voice the nail was driven further and further into our coffin. I could hear Yang breathing heavily across from me, clearly enraged. She didn't understand. She didn't know. She couldn't see.

We poked a sleeping dragon. Now we were getting burned.

"Real strong," Regen Wasser's voice said. SAFR's R continued: "I don't know what they do in their spare time or where they go, but they don't stay on campus. I-"

The audio abruptly cut off and I heard Yang place her Scroll on the metal bench.

"This- I don't even know what… I can't even speak!"

A sigh escaped my lips and I moved my hands away from my face, instead resting my chin on a fist.

"How could they," Yang raged, pacing up and down the meager length of the airship. Her heels _clacked _harshly on the metal flooring as she moved. "This is… This is fucked up! We didn't do _anything_!"

Weiss sniffed and rubbed at her eyes even as Ruby released her and turned to her elder sister.

"We'll figure this out," the younger girl said. "We just… We gotta get back to Beacon-"

"We can't go back to Beacon now! We can't go anywhere! That… That _fucker _put attempted mass murder on our heads!"

"Did it well too," I muttered, the grin still on my face.

"Humor, really," the blonde hissed, whirling around to face me.

I shook my head. "What else can I say? We got played. _Bad._ He used our rumor that Blake was a faunus and gave it credibility. He gave team RWEBY a motive to blow up the Citadel and used us to get Winter in Weiss' place."

"There's gotta be something we can do," Yang argued, scowling even as she shook her head. "That red energy never touched the floor! We can tell them that we never made that crater in the-"

"How, Yang? I got rid of that stupid red ball hours ago," I reminded her. "If I still had it? Sure. We _might_ be able to argue that it was never used to blow anything up but that's a moot point now – I don't have it. As far as Remnant is concerned, I used it in Spotlight Citadel instead tossing it into the ocean ba-"

"There's always a way. Always!"

"Right! We can just refute his primary claim that Blake is a faunus by having her take off her bow- oh wait! We can't!"

The girl crossed her arms, her jaw tense. "I could do without the sarcasm, Enten."

"My apologies," I demurred with a shallow bow as I rose to my feet. "How else can I respond when I'm so backed into a corner? Looks like Schnee interests even managed to parse out those student interviews from Beacon! No good ones? Great! Team RWEBY is full of psychopaths!"

Yang swallowed heavily, an angry scowl on her face even as Weiss sniffed glumly.

"S-Schnee Dust Company controls a," the girl hiccupped and wiped at her nose with the sleeve of her dress. "We- I mean… _they_ control a majority in Atlas Global and… and have substantial influence in what is aired."

The girl sniffed again and Blake put her head in her hands. I turned away from Yang and instead placed my forearms against the airship's walls, craning my neck to look at the ocean out of the tiny porthole in its side.

"So what," Yang continued behind me, her voice lower and quieter now. "We give up? We're done? We're criminals now? That's it?"

No one bothered to respond and that only seemed to enrage the girl again. I heard her heels click loudly on the metal flooring behind me as she started to pace up and down the length of the airship once more. Her breath began to come in heavy pants and she was soon uttering curses under her breath.

"Blake," Yang demanded, seconds later. "Come on, you're being lumped in together with the White Fang! I _know _you don't like that. You hate everything they stand for!"

The faunus sighed. "What can I do about it? The best thing for us now is for me to leave team RWEBY so-"

"You don't mean that!"

"If I leave, then maybe you guys can go back to Beacon and say I made you-"

"No," Yang yelled. "No! That's not what we're gonna do! It's all or nothing!"

"Yang," Blake muttered quietly. "I…" She stopped and, with another sigh, fell silent.

I heard the blonde growl under her breath and begin stalking up the airship again. Once, twice, three times she paced up and down the length of it. The sound of her shoes on the metal was accompanied only by an occasional sniffle and the heavy shifting of machinery as the wind buffeted our transport.

The sounds reminded me of Ultimatum.

"Weiss," Yang demanded as she came to a stop near the cockpit. "Do you know anyone who can tell it like it is for us? Someone in the company or Spotlight Citadel or… or _anywhere!"_

The girl swallowed and inhaled – the action sounded watery. "No," she said, her voice shaking.

"What about that Aqua woman? She liked you!"

"I don't know," Weiss sniffled. "I… I didn't like to associate with anyone in S-S… Schnee Manor."

I heard the blonde growl behind me. "That's it?! Come on! Your dad just kicked you out-"

"Yang," Ruby cut in, sounding cross. "That's enough!"

The girl huffed and promptly began pacing up and down the length of the airship again. I, for my part, continued to stare out of the porthole. The ocean was several thousand feet below us and looked incredibly beautiful in the moon's light. The tranquility of the water appealed to me greatly.

It was innocent. It was carefree.

'_If only.'_

"Enten," Yang demanded as she came to a stop behind me.

I sighed and shut my eyes, wanting more than anything for the girl to sit down and fall silent. There wasn't any way out of this situation for us – the best we could hope for was Ozpin's assistance in fighting the charges and… well, given the lack of evidence in our favor, I couldn't see that going well.

"Enten," the blonde hissed once more even as what I thought was her fist impacted the back of my shoulder.

I pushed off the wall and released a groan, turning away from my tiny window to face the girl. "The crusade has arrived for me at last! Yes, Yang?"

"You of all people I expected to fight the most," she hissed through narrowed eyes. "Where's all that effort to make this team stronger? To get us ahead?"

"That went down the drain when we made an enemy out of Schnee," I muttered, ignoring Ruby's wince. "He's in another league, Yang. He has resources. Contacts that we-"

"So the great _fucking _Enten is giving up," the girl asked, incredulous. "After all that talk? All those arguments? We hit one wall-"

I shook my head incredulously, a scoff escaping my throat.

"_One wall_ Enten! One," she said emphatically. "We hit one bump in the road and suddenly you roll over?! That's it!?"

"It's not so much a wall as it is an entire fortress."

Her nostrils flared and her eyes widened. "So much for all your intellect! So much for all your planning and plotting! _Fucking _useless!"

"Insults, Yang," I noted dryly. "Is that what you're resorting-"

She snarled and abruptly threw herself at me. The girl shoved me back up against the airship's wall and quickly placed her forearm across my throat. Immediately, she put her face close enough to mine that her heavy exhalations of air were easily felt on my chin.

"I thought you did everything for this team," she snarled, her eyes narrowed in a glower. "I thought you were all for team RWEBY. I thought you _cared!_ I trusted you to keep us safe!"

"Enough," I hissed, shoving her away from me. Just who did this girl think she was, pinning this entire situation on me? She was just as much to blame as I was. She was just as complacent!

"Is it? Cause it looks like you lied about caring for this team," she returned, stumbling backward. Her muscles were tense and her fists were clenched. "Turns out you were just a bunch of talk-"

"Fuck you!"

The girl spat on the ground between us. "What? Don't like hearing it? Tough!"

I growled deep in my throat and took a threatening step forward even as Blake straightened just off to my side, her eyes riveted on Yang and I. The faunus' movement caught my eye and I glanced her way, just long enough to catch a glimpse of her expression. Once I saw her face, though, I found myself unable to look away.

There were a lot of emotions on her features for me to see, something remarkable for the girl that usually only moved her eyebrows to communicate. Now, her lips were pulled down into a frown and her eyes were wider than usual. Her nostrils were flared and her shoulders hunched. Her hands were fisted into the material of her dress and her pupils were darting erratically between Yang and I.

It all spoke of sorrow to me. Nervousness, sadness, misery… nothing positive.

And that did not surprise me. The faunus girl just underwent what was probably her worst fear in not only being outed as a faunus on a _worldwide _level but also being linked to the very organization she so despised. Everyone would know her as the faunus that tried to attack Schnee Dust Company publically and hate her for it. The White Fang would know her as a deserter and hate her for it. She had no one. Nowhere to go. Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide.

She had nothing…

Except us. She had her team. If I had my way, she would _always _have her team.

But we were under attack now and the instigator was none other than Hagel Schnee – the richest, most well connected man on the planet. He had us in a corner and Blake knew it. She knew she had nowhere to go, now. In fact, I imagined she would try to run the second we landed in Vale.

What else could she do? No family to support her. The public – human and faunus alike – lined up against her.

'_Damnit,' _I thought bitterly, only just realizing that a certain irate blonde was still in front of me.

Where Blake was miserable, Yang was rage incarnate. She saw her life falling apart before her eyes and her carefree attitude couldn't shake off that burden. She couldn't ignore this threat or brush it off as a non-issue. She was being forced to confront an unstoppable force and, this time, her fists wouldn't help her beat it back.

She was angry. She was lashing out at anyone or anything she could because she did not know what else she could do. Her nonchalance wouldn't cut it, not now, not in the face of Schnee's charges.

Because she couldn't brush off attempted murder like it didn't matter to her… It most certainly did.

Not because she was so against killing people, no… Yang was not as pure of heart as her sister, Ruby, was. The blonde was willing to get her hands dirty to get what she wanted. She was not above stepping into a morally grey area if it would further her goals in life. Her interests, her desires.

No, the attempted murder charge forced Yang to confront the fact that she might just not have the freedom to go where she wanted to go in the future. She might just not be able to do what she wanted to do or see what she wanted to see.

She might not be able to find her long lost mother. That too, would be stolen from her.

Yang Xiao Long did not take well to being controlled – she and I were alike in that – and what method of control was more offensive than forcing her into a jail cell for the next several years?

'_If we're lucky, we won't get life,' _I noted. The attempted murder charge was probably going to be bumped up to attempted _mass _murder before long. There were a lot of people in Spotlight Citadel, after all.

I slumped back into my seat, my anger having fled me, prompting the blonde herself to huff angrily and take another insulting shot at me. I ignored her.

If only there were something I could do. Some way I could fight this… The charges were rock solid, as far as I could tell. Granted, I was no lawyer, but Schnee managed to place us at the scene of the crime with a motive and the means to do what he claimed. Worse still, we had no way of disproving his charges and, though it galled me to admit it, we even _helped _him by spreading the rumor about Blake around.

No… team RWEBY would not be free any longer. The law was not-

_The law_ was not on our side. Society was not on our side…

Law-abiding citizens were not on our side but then… who said we had to abide by the law?

'_Oh, Ruby is __**not **__going to like this,' _I realized but still, my mind began to spin. The hopelessness that pulled at my consciousness was tossed aside carelessly. The misery, the angry and the self-loathing I felt not even five minutes prior was forgotten entirely.

In its place was something I desperately needed and readily accepted: hope.

This was not the end of team RWEBY because we still had our freedom _now_. We had an airship that we could take us anywhere on the planet. We had our minds, our wits. We had a chance.

Most importantly, we had each other.

Blake would not lose everything. Yang would not lose her freedom. Not if I had any say in it.

My eyes narrowed and my hands folded under my chin even as adrenaline rushed up my spine.

"Blake," I said, inadvertently causing the faunus to jump. "What has Sun told you about Mistral?"

The girl remained silent for several seconds but at least Yang wasn't yelling any longer. I took my gaze away from the empty bench opposite my own and looked toward my black haired partner. She was returning my gaze, wide eyed and blinking slowly.

"Blake," I prompted, leaning toward her. "Mistral. What has Sun told you of it? He goes to Haven Academy, right? In Mistral?"

"Uh… Yes, yes he does," the girl muttered, licking her lips. Her head drooped down to rest atop her knees, they were still pulled up to her chest. "He does…"

"Good. And Mistral," I said for the third time. "What has he told you about Mistral?"

Team RWEBY needed a destination, after all, and Vale certainly wasn't going to cut it. Not when everybody on the planet expected us to return to Beacon.

"Um," the girl stammered, blinking rapidly now. "He… He said it's kind of depressing because there's a lot of swamplands. And he said he loves the forests on the… the west coast of the continent, I think."

"Swamps and forests," I muttered, my eyes darting around the airship aimlessly. The former would be good for losing any pursuers – swamps would probably be hard to track people in, given they were made up primarily of murky water and heavy tree-cover. The forests were encouraging too. Not as much as the swamplands, but certainly better than Vacuo's open aired deserts. All it would take was one lucky person there and we'd be found.

"And the cities? Has he mentioned them," I asked even as my hands delved into my jacket, bringing my Scroll to bear in short order.

"There's… I don't remember what it's called but their capital is on the right side of that inland lake. The big one, in the center of the continent."

"It's called Mistral too," Weiss said quietly from the front of the airship. "Fa- T-the SDC has a sizeable presence there."

"Alright," I muttered, nodding. "Swamplands. Forests in the west. Mountains in the north, right?"

The question was spoken aloud to the entire airship but it was Ruby that responded.

"Yeah," the girl said. "Uncle Qrow says they're really cold all year 'round… Enten, what are you doing?"

"One second. Let me finish writing that down."

"Writing? What- You mean about Mistral?"

"Yes."

The younger girl fell silent then and I glanced up at her once I was done typing to find her staring back at me.

Her face was neutral, now. Gone was the crushing sadness brought about from the situation her team found itself in. Gone was the desperation. The misery.

I found that comforting, were I honest with myself. A miserable Ruby was something I never wanted to see. It was disconcerting. Discouraging.

Instead, now the girl looked inquisitive. Her eyes were narrowed and she had a single eyebrow arched – the ability to raise just _one _instead of two was something she still bragged about learning from time to time even now. Her mouth was ever so slightly opened and she was leaning forward on her knees.

"Enten," she asked slowly. "What are you thinking?"

I inhaled slowly, gathering my thoughts. My focus shifted to Weiss, then to Yang – who was still standing in front of me – and finally, to Blake. All of them were watching me. All of them were displaying some amount of hope, guarded though it was. The wider eyes, the unnaturally still stances, all of it told me they were looking to me for a solution.

That was a heavy responsibility, getting us out of this mess. It was one that I, frankly, did not want. It was one that I felt should fall upon Ruby's shoulders rather than my own. It was one I _wished _Ruby would take on instead of me… It was intimidating and unnerving, having these four rely on me in such a large way.

But then, I realized, is that not what we did when we fought? I put my life in my teammates' hands regularly just as much as they did me. In Bruiser, if I misplaced a shield block then Blake would be hurt.

But I did not miss my blocks.

In Mario, should I fail to immobilize our foe, Ruby might be hurt for it.

But I never held back when the younger girl needed me.

Or in Sunny Day, if I was too slow to switch out with Yang when she faltered, she would suffer for it.

But never had I hesitated to give her some breathing room.

And Deep Freeze – if I moved Weiss' glyph too far or didn't distract our opponent enough, it would surely turn on her, rather than me.

But that wasn't going to happen. Not now. Not ever.

I exhaled slowly through my nose, coming to feet and pacing to the back of the airship. My footsteps echoed hollowly in the silence of the airship, accompanied only by the strong ocean wind buffeting the transport. A precise turn had me facing my team once I reached the end of the ship and I found four pairs of eyes watching me. Some were reddened around the edges, others were bloodshot, but all of them were focused on me.

No, I wasn't about to let them down. Not now. Not ever. Moping and brooding served no purpose and it galled me to think I allowed myself to fall to such a low.

I did not have time to mope. I did not have time to brood.

Not when my team needed to _survive_.

"We can't go back to Vale. We can't go back to Beacon," I said slowly, quietly, glancing at each of my teammates in turn. "That'd be playing right into Schnee's hands. We'll have our very own set of peacekeepers to take us into custody the second we touch down and you'd better believe we won't see the light of day again after that happens."

I stopped to swallow and immediately, a stunned silence overtook the airship.

"Yes," I continued, nodding. "I'm suggesting we run from the law."

"We… We don't need to," Ruby inserted. "We're innocent!"

"We know that, but they don't," Blake said, turning her inquisitive gaze from me to her leader. It felt like the faunus was re-evaluating me. Like she was seeing a new side of me and did not quite know what to make of it yet.

'_Enten the criminal,' _I thought, sardonic even as the edge of my lips curled up into a smirk. _'I need a criminal name.'_

"We can prove… Well, we can't… Ugh," Ruby groaned, putting her head in her hands. She continued, muttering: "This _sucks_. Stupid… stupid…"

The girl hunched over further and buried her face in her arms. Her shoulders soon started to shake and uneven breathing soon followed it.

Yang shifted and crossed the short distance between her and her younger sister. Immediately, she placed a hand on the younger girl's shoulders. "It's not your fault, Ru-"

"Yes it is! It is my fault! It's all my fault," the younger girl exclaimed, abruptly lifting her head up to stare at her elder sister. "It's my fault we're in the hierarchy! It's my fault Schnee is mad at us! It's _my fault _we're criminals! Mine!"

"It's not your fault, not at all," Yang responded immediately, dropping to a knee and placing a hand under Ruby's chin when the girl tried to look away. "I will never, _ever_ blame you for being you, Ruby. Never. You're the most kind-hearted, loving, virtuous person I know! When you see someone in need, you help them, even if they don't want you to or if they hate you for it. You help them."

The younger girl released a heaving sob even as Weiss reached out and placed a hand on her back.

"But I made us criminals! How am I supposed to help people like that?! I ruined everything for all of-"

"That's enough," Yang said firmly, closing the younger girl's mouth with her hand. "_You _didn't make us criminals. _You _turned down a morally bankrupt man that couldn't even be bothered to tell his daughter he loved her. _You _made the choice a hero would make, Ruby. As far as I'm concerned, you _are _my hero. You always will be."

The younger girl's lip's quivered and she unleashed a painful keen as she threw herself at her sister. Her arms immediately coiled around Yang's neck and she buried her head in the older girl's shoulder. The blonde, for her part, ignored the mess her hair was becoming and returned the embrace fully, murmuring words of comfort that I could not hear into Ruby's ear.

I exhaled once more, faster and far more agitated now that my leader had broken down into an illegible blubbering mess.

Hagel Schnee did this to her. Hagel Schnee did this to our team.

All because we turned down his offer… all because he wanted, presumably, to install Winter as heiress in Weiss' place. He didn't care about us or our feelings or our aspirations. He only cared about himself and his company.

I would compare him to myself but then the man didn't even care for his _daughters_. My heart was not so cold. My mind was not so ruthless. My will to survive and the bonds I shared with my friends drove me on and I would _never _sacrifice those.

I could only imagine that greed and a lust for power drove Hagel Schnee's black heart to continue beating.

My Scroll made an appearance in my hands and, quickly, I restarted the object and booted it up from the secondary partition. The one I could wipe away in an instant and lose nothing because of it.

Hagel Schnee wanted to make an enemy of team RWEBY? Fine. He damn well succeeded.

But the man also gave us one of his airships to use… an airship that would most certainly be returned to him in the future. And wouldn't it just be a shame if something… _hostile _was hiding within the airship's memory.

My Scroll lit up and I looked down at it, drawing my attention away from a still comatose Ruby. The operating system made by the Malamig Corporation appeared before my face.

'_Need to update that,' _I noted even as I opened up the device to wireless communication. Almost immediately, I received feedback from a 'SchneeTranShip06'. I initiated a connection without hesitating and immediately received a prompt for a username and a password. There were defaults for those kinds of things and hopefully Schnee – or whoever maintained his airships – was stupid enough to leave it that way.

'_No,'_ I acknowledged when my first guess was rejected. _'No. No. No. No. Damnit.'_

Quickly, I glanced up. Blake was watching me closely, now, but the remaining three members of team RWEBY were still focused on our leader at the front of the ship. The girl was still wailing though not as loudly as before.

"Weiss," I barked over the younger girl.

The huntress-in-training jumped and looked up at me, her eyes still somewhat reddened.

"Is there a common password the Schnee family uses for its security? For its accounts? Anything that you might need to access the mansion?"

The girl's mouth moved soundlessly for a moment, her eyes darting over the airship. "Uhh…"

I licked my lips, well aware that Ruby was eying me as best she could through her sobs from Yang's shoulder. Her eyes were red, wet and bloodshot.

"This is important. Anything you used to use to get by security or use an airship. Any passwords you used for terminals?"

"We always had our own passwords," Weiss muttered slowly as Ruby left her sister's embrace fully –only sniffling now – and my blonde partner turned to face me alongside her.

"Your own accounts," I asked. "As in, your own username, your own password?"

"Yes," the girl nodded. Then, her exquisitely manicured eyebrows furrowing, she continued: "How does this pertain to our current situation?"

I shook my head and quickly closed the distance between us in three long strides. My Scroll was thrust in front of her face once I reset the connection attempt; the user credential prompt displayed itself once more.

"Try your username and password. I'll explain what I want to do if it-"

"Works," Weiss finished, smiling slightly as she handed me the Scroll back. Sure enough, the device was awaiting my input from the command line. Immediately, I attempted to gain root access to the system.

'_A little "sudo su" should do it,' _I thought even as I typed in the command, only to get a negative response from the system.

"You don't have root access," I said aloud even as my mind raced.

"No," Weiss said after she glanced at Ruby and Yang. "I wouldn't. Only the technicians would have that, I assume."

"Or me," came my response even as my fingers flew over the virtual keys on my Scroll. Resetting a root password was serious business and not something done easily. You had to be able to reboot the entire system and doing that would take all the electronic systems on the ship offline, including the autopilot function.

In essence, it would shut down the airship.

"Find somewhere to land, Weiss."

"Uh," the girl stammered, glancing back at the controls behind her. "What?"

"Somewhere to land. We need to be on the ground so I can shut down the airship."

"So you can shut down the airship," the girl parroted, sharing an incredulous glance with Yang. Still, she turned toward the controls and started to manipulate them. "Why not? We've already been framed for mass murder, surely we can waste precious time on an island somewhere in the middle of the ocean. Who cares about rogue waves? Only commoners concern themselves with such base things."

I released a snort and the girl's shoulders tensed as she started to guide us toward a sizeable piece of land just north of Vale's continent. We were over a collection of islands just off the top edge of the coast.

"Oh," I muttered suddenly, my eyes widened as I glanced at Ruby. "No one blames you for this Schnee shit."

"Schnee shit," Yang repeating, shaking her head even as her younger sister offered me a small smile. "Enten's empathy at its finest."

"Thank you," Ruby said quietly even as directed a frown at Yang.

"I could sit here and tell all of you how much I admire Ruby for her strength of character and her mental fortitude. I could tell you how I wouldn't have been able to stand in front of Hagel Schnee and keep cool. I could tell you how proud I was of her when she turned the guy down. I could rant on and on and on about what a great person Ruby Rose is and how she'll forever make a better leader for this team than I ever could."

I swallowed and glanced away from the younger girl as we touched down on land. "But I can't. We're on the ground now and I have hacking to do."

Ruby threw herself at my midsection and managed to stagger me with the force behind the impact. She wrapped her arms around my torso and buried her face in my side.

"Thank you," she muttered, glancing up at me through teary eyes.

"No problem squirt," I said, a grin on my face. "Now watch the snot – this is a new suit and I'll not have it soiled."

The girl giggled and released me, turning instead to her sister. She wrapped her arms around the taller blonde's waist as well.

"Should I shut it down," Weiss asked, drawing my attention away from the sisters. I turned to face her and glanced down at my Scroll.

"Nope," I muttered, initiating a command that would do just that from my Scroll. "I got it."

Sure enough, the airship released a metallic whine as its engines slowed and eventually became silent. The wind scarcely made a sound, now, though without the extra background noise I recognized the pitter-patter of raindrops on the transport's metal plates. And sure enough, when I checked there was water running down the glass panels of the cockpit.

I released a dismissive grunt as I glanced back down-

"What are you doing," Blake's voice suddenly asked, about two inches behind me.

I jumped violently and ended up throwing myself into the side of Weiss' chair. That immediately forced the air from my lungs and I very quickly ended up on all fours, coughing and wheezing even as Yang snorted and Weiss hummed.

"Are you alright," Ruby gasped even as her sister laughed.

"Nice," the blonde commented and I raised my head to find her grinning down at me over her younger sister's shoulder. She had her arms wrapped around Ruby's waist.

"Shut it," I muttered as I pushed myself back to my feet. To Blake: "You need to stop doing that."

"Doing what?"

"You know _exactly _what I mean."

The girl arched both her eyebrows and shrugged, completely silent.

I exhaled through my nose and placed myself in the co-pilot's seat that Ruby vacated not even five minutes before. It would be harder to catch me off guard up here and there was cushioning in this chair; it was an upgrade from the unforgiving metal edges of the bench.

"Right," I muttered, looking back down at my Scroll. "I need to boot up the airship from the OS on my Scroll… give me a moment."

"Are you taking control of it," Yang asked, leaning over my right shoulder even as her sister craned her neck to see my Scroll over the opposite side. "Why not just use the, you know, controls?"

"If all I wanted to do was control it then I'd agree with you," I responded, watching as my secondary partition went through the boot up process for the airship with bated breath. Normally this would circumvent most security measures because I was not connecting to the airship with the operating system installed on board. Instead, I was using my own. A proxy of sorts.

"So you don't want to control it," Blake noted. "…Are you going to do something _permanent _to it?"

A grin started to grow on my lips even as the boot process completed successfully. From there it was a simple matter – relatively speaking – to reset the root password.

"Something like that," I verbalized even as I shut down the airship again through my Scroll. "Weiss, go ahead and hit the power."

The girl did so, switching two tabs and then pressing a button. Shortly thereafter, the transport whined once more as its engines fired.

"Do you need me to stay on the ground?"

"No," I said. "That was just necessary so that I could reset the password."

"Aren't they gonna notice that," Yang asked. "Like, immediately?"

"Probably," I confirmed as I watched my Scroll connect to the airship's native OS once more. After the Malamig Corporation's logo disappeared and the command line showed up, I input my new credentials and…

'_Success.'_

Schnee's plan was _almost _air-tight. Almost… The devil was in the details. A plan so well thought out that it took a programmer – a rarity in Remnant – to find a fault in it. Truly impressive.

'_But find a flaw I did,' _I thought, satisfied. I could do a lot to implicate Schnee with root access to this ship. I could create system logs that detailed falsified attempts to wipe all Schnee signs from the airships systems. I could create logs that detailed conversations that never happened. Logs that said so very much about so very little.

Or, I could introduce a little bit of malware into the Schnee network. Petty vengeance but given whatever I did to shift the blame onto Schnee here could be written off by claiming we tampered with the airship, I was more in the mood to give as good as I got.

"Root access," I muttered to the ship at large, taking a moment to glance first at Blake, then Yang, then Weiss, then Ruby. "Root access is dangerous. I created that sub-domain for us to protect against it. I made you alter your Scrolls' security settings to protect against it. Never, ever give someone root access to your devices. If they know what they're doing… they can cause you all sorts of problems."

Unfortunately for Schnee, I knew just enough to be dangerous.

My first act was the creation of a text file. A simple matter. I made it in an obscure directory, one hidden from normal users on the system. The unlucky tech that got stuck figuring out what happened would need root level access to the airship to even see what I was going to do.

That done, I wrote a command. One single command. It was placed into the text file and, admittedly, it appeared to be a jumble of symbols. Parenthesis. Colons. Ampersands.

It looked completely harmless at first glance. Like someone let a toddler type on a keyboard.

I knew better.

"You girls ever heard of a fork bomb," I asked even as I went about turning the text file into an executable.

"What do you think, Enten," Yang asked wryly. "The only reason we even know what root means is because of you."

I grinned. "Sorry, forgot you were a Neanderthal. A fork bomb runs a program, one little program, once in the foreground and once in the background on a server. Then it does it again. And again. And again. And again, and again, and again, and again until the entire system freezes."

There was a bout of silence that descended over us briefly and I used the opportunity to create another text file. This one would be designed to run that executable as soon as the airship entered a network with the word 'Schnee' in its name. It would then copy itself and the hostile executable to every single server it could find.

In short, every server within that Schnee network would run my attack script every time they started up. And every time they started up, they would almost immediately freeze because they ran that script, thus requiring a tech to shut them down again so that they could clear the memory. And when they started again…

"That sounds… bad," Blake commented, glancing at Yang briefly. "So you're making sure they can't use this ship again?"

"That's awesome," Yang cheered, thrusting a fist into the air.

I shook my head, saving the job and registering it as a startup task for the server. "Not just this ship… The second part of my plan involves a little piece of code that duplicates the fork bomb on every server within a Schnee network that it can access. Every. Single. Server."

Yang's eyes widened and Blake's eyebrows arched as they realized the full scope of the damage I intended to do. It might take months to realize because this airship was probably going to be scoured for information on our whereabouts once we landed it, but unless my files were wiped from it – _'Unlikely.' _– then Hagel Schnee was in for a very nasty surprise when he got his transport back.

"So, Mistral," Weiss asked slowly as she guided the transport into the air once more.

"Mistral," I nodded.

* * *

**A/N:** So I belatedly realized what an awkward day today is to post this thanks to one of my reviewers but this chapter is the real deal! No 'gotchas' coming in the near future, team RWEBY has just turned a new page in their lives thanks entirely to one Hagel Schnee!

I'll be exploring completely original content from here on out with one exception in the form of the Beacon Academy battle that ended season three. Even that, though, will happen differently. It'll still happen but… well, I'll just wait until we get there!

As always, let me know what you think. I love hearing from you guys!

**Atrile: **I know there wasn't a question in your review but I wanted to respond to it all the same. I love the amount of thought you put in to analyzing the red orb scene – it's encouraging to know that readers pick up on subtle queues like that! Thanks for your thoughts!

**SeigZeon: **Who said we're not going the anti-hero route? Stay tuned…

**Name Change Guest: **Yeah, going over 600 reviews without a single flame was a good record, at least. There'll always be flamers though – ah well! I'll take comfort in the fact that he rates OC's on how 'badass' their weapons and Semblances are over realism. Hah! As far as Hagel hiding his face, well, everything happens for a reason!

**Theroostersteeth: **Nothing so serious as the entire cast dying. That would rather abruptly end the fic! Thanks for you review!

I'll see you guys in two weeks! Till then, happy reading!

-Phailen


	37. Chapter 37

"_I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear."__  
__―__**Nelson Mandela**_

* * *

_Five hours later, Week 18 – Mistral Swamplands – Blake Belladonna_

The water of the swamp slushed and churned as team RWEBY trounced through its depths. It slapped our calves and nipped at our skin in protest, turning cold our feet and soiling our shoes and dresses and pants. Around us, scraggly trees bowed to the wind's pressure, their barren branches scraping against one another in a pathetic mockery of the forests Vale claimed as its own. The air, humid and heavy and moist, saturated our clothing and caused our skin to slicken – our legs brushed wetly against one another whenever we moved.

And moved we did.

Tired, hungry and thirsty, team RWEBY moved on.

A cricket boldly proclaimed its presence with a loud, shrill chirp some distance to my right. A bullfrog answered with a low, rumbling croak and the birds in the trees tittered and cawed at one another.

The water slushed. The trees scratched.

They were familiar, these sounds. It reminded me of a time when sneaking through the night like this was the norm for me. When I needed to be silent, lest I reveal my presence to those who would see me dead.

The water slushed and protested _their_ movements. The mud grasped at _their _feet. The skin of _their _legs slapped together. Their clothes rustled. Their breathing was heavy and audible. Their stomachs growled.

They were loud; they did not know it, but they were so, _so _loud.

The water parted mutely for my legs and the mud released my shoes without a single protest. I did not lift my legs out of the calf-high water to walk and my dress remained still about my thighs. My breathing was slow and measured and my stomach remained quiet.

Silence, my oldest and most dear friend. My stalwart ally against bigots.

"_Ugh," _Weiss suddenly exclaimed in front of me.

My eye twitched even as a flutter of feathers signaled the exit of our curious avian onlookers. The white haired girl startled them away, no doubt. She was _loud_. She did not understand.

We could not be loud, not now.

"It's so humid! And this water," the former heiress railed, clutching once more at her soiled ball gown. The sparkling white fabric was dirty and browned below the knee. "This is _absolutely _unacceptable!"

Water surged behind me – disturbed by either Enten or Yang – but abruptly stopped almost as soon as it started. Barely, I managed to make out the wet smacking sound of dampened skin grasping equally wet skin.

"Don't," Enten breathed. "She needs something to distract herself."

"But does she have to do it so obnoxiously," Yang hissed back.

So many words. So many unnecessary words to complete their thoughts. So many more chances at being heard. At being found out.

I could not hear anything unnatural about the Mistral night surrounding us but that did not mean that nothing was there. There were creatures who could hear just as well as I. Beings that could move as quietly as I was able. Things that could see in the dark, just like me.

I was not aware of their presence, but that did not mean that they were not near.

My breath was drawn in from my nose, slowly and measuredly, even as I swallowed heavily. I needed to make them understand.

"Come on Weiss… It's not that bad," Ruby said in front of me, where she walked with the former Schnee heiress.

I needed to speak, to tell them that they were jeopardizing us all by being so loud. So noisy…

But this was not Beacon. I was not on equal footing with my team any longer. The ease with which I once communicated with them abandoned me just as easily as I feared they would abandon me.

"Then I hesitate to ask what _is _bad, Ruby!"

So loud. So many words. Still, I held my tongue. I did not admonish. It was not my place nor was it my right. They allowed me to come along with them even though it would be much easier for them if they did away with me. My presence here only plagued them with a tangible link to the White Fang. I was lucky that they tolerated me-

"_To family," Enten said, his arm warm around my shoulders. There was a soft glint in his brown eyes._

"_To family," Yang repeated, the quietest and most sincere I'd ever heard her voice. She wrapped her arm around my waist._

_I opened my mouth but suddenly found myself without words. My throat was dry and my eyes were watering. My hands were shaking but __**damnit**__ this was important to me! They wanted me as family! They were… I'd never had a family before!_

"_To," I said but my breath returned to me all of the sudden and I gasped, abruptly finding it hard to swallow. I shut my eyes and pitched forward, placing my head on Enten's shoulder and my arm around Yang's waist in return. For several seconds I took in their scents, their sounds; I took comfort in their presence. They gave me strength._

_It was a new feeling for me and I needed to cherish it. I'd never felt __**wanted **__before…_

_The White Fang needed me to carry out missions. My fellow faunus relied upon my support. But they never wanted me. Never did they express affection for me. We were just… allies. Allies of convenience. Nothing more._

_But these __**humans**__… They were more. They were so much more._

"_To family," I whispered, a shaky smile growing on my lips and a breathy sigh rising up from my throat._

I shut my eyes and the water around my feet churned as my steps faltered. The mud beneath the murky liquid grappled with my shoes and, suddenly, I was falling forward-

A hand grasped my left arm and another landed on my right shoulder, halting my progress toward the tepid swamp's embrace. Slowly, those hands – one larger and one smaller – righted me. They pulled me back to my feet and offered their support freely, willingly.

'_You are wanted,' _I told myself, not for the first time since we left the airship several hours ago. The doubts abated. My fears fled, if only temporarily. _'You are wanted.'_

"You alright, Blakey," Yang asked from my right. "I don't think you should take a dip in this water…"

Unbidden, a smile stretched across my lips then and I opened my eyes. Ruby and Weiss were still marching forward, ahead of me, cast in the sharply contrasted greys, whites and blacks of my night vision. But Yang and Enten…

My partners. My friends.

My _family_.

"No," I croaked, prompting Enten's eyes to narrow and Yang's eyebrows to arch. I cleared my throat and forcibly swallowed away my lingering doubts and insecurities.

'_I am wanted.'_

"No," I tried again, my voice reasonably stable. "I don't think it would go over well for my nose."

The blonde grinned and released my shoulder. "Or _mine!_"

I returned the girl's grin readily – Yang was easily the most infectious person I'd ever met. Her emotion, good or bad, was contagious. Her presence was comforting and never did it fail to put me at ease.

My focus turned then, to my other side, where Enten still gripped my arm. My eyes promptly found his and the intensity in them nearly made me flinch away from him.

Where Yang was easy going and incredibly open, Enten was… intimidating. The boy had a way with words and the intellect hidden behind his eyes scared me to my core, once upon a time. He could ferret out information from people seemingly at will and, though my mind told me that he was fallible, my irrational side saw him as invincible.

To a faunus trying to hide her past and the secrets contained therein, that was once incredibly intimidating to me. I tried to shorten my conversations with the boy, especially after he blew up over Weiss and Ruby's argument. I said as few words as I could, expressed myself as little as possible around him, all because I did not want him to know. About the White Fang. About my past. About my ambitions. My dreams.

I would do _anything _to see my dreams fulfilled. I would go to any length. Make whatever sacrifices were necessary.

Because the faunus _would _be treated equally and I was not above sinking to new lows to see that happen.

Thus, this boy with a faunus family scared me. I had thought, once upon a time, that he would figure out my dreams and my desires. I feared that he could read me as easily as I read my books and that once he knew I would act in _my _best interest instead of the team's… he would end me.

But that changed. My fear mutated into something resembling first a wary acceptance. Perhaps even respect!

It was when I saw him manipulate Cardin into bullying Jaune so that RWEBY could advance. That revealed to me something that I saw in myself. I saw the same drive I possessed within him. I saw the same willingness to venture into the dark that I knew I possessed, deep down inside of myself.

But where I feared that darkness, where I feared just how far I would go, he _accepted _it. He embraced that part of himself despite the damage he knew it would do to his bonds with his team. His drive. His will… I knew then that they had been tried and tested more than my own. That he proved he truly would go to any lengths to see his ambitions fulfilled whereas I… I might falter.

Respect.

It was difficult to look at yourself in the mirror every morning and realize just how despicable you were. Harder still, to accept it.

But then, that changed once more. First, I feared. Then, I respected. Lastly, I _understood_.

I gave him my book to read after the debacle with Cardin and Jaune to see how he would place himself in its characters. It was an exercise that I practiced myself, to help me come to terms with what I was and how that would never, ever change.

I was the general, after all. Willing to do just about anything to see my desires fulfilled. A despicable person through and through. Ruthless and cold and unfeeling. The only saving grace of the character was the fact that he won his war and saved his people, at the cost of the lives of so many of his men…

At best, I thought I might falter instead of following through with a sacrifice on the level that the general perpetrated. Then, I would be known as a coward and a failure… but at least I wouldn't be known as a monster.

The inventor, though... The man that did everything for his country. The man that sacrificed himself for his work so that his people might live. The man that lived with the hatred of a nation so that the very people who reviled him might live. The most heroic man in the entire book who easily outshined the war heroes and morally good characters cut, as they were, straight from the generic mold of a stereotypical idol.

That was the inventor.

That was Enten.

It was him in a nutshell. He was willing to go to any length to see his friends and family live and, to me, that required more strength than any hero could ever muster.

But he surprised me, that night when I searched him out on Beacon's campus. I planned on giving him the second book and reaffirming my belief that he saw himself as the inventor. He was so confident in his actions, in his thought processes… how could he not know what a hero he was?

But he surprised me.

He, like _me_, saw himself in the general. He, like _me_, doubted himself and what he was doing despite the fact that it was so very admirable. He, like _me_, feared what he would do.

I was flabbergast. I spent several moments in silence, contemplated just what I learned that night before I tried to reassure him.

And wasn't that a surprise even to this day!

Me! Blake Belladonna, faunus and former member of the White Fang with a history I was desperate to hide and terrified of someone discovering, comforting a man-turned-boy who seemed to be completely infallible and in possession of an unshakeable will.

It was at that moment that my respect – blind and naïve, in retrospect – turned into understanding.

We both feared our ambition. We both feared our drive. We both thought we would hurt those close to us, him with his desire to see his loved ones safe and me with my wish to see the White Fang stopped.

We were so, so similar.

So I made him see. I offered him comfort and, suddenly, the untouchable became human once more.

We connected, then. Even more so when he told me of how I was not, in fact, most like the general. Of how agreeing to go to the Schnee Ball was indicative of just how much I valued my friends over my goals.

I wrote off his words at the time – how did the Schnee Ball compare to ending the White Fang? Not well. Like comparing a boarbatusk to a nevermore.

But then, he told me I reminded him most of the lieutenant in the story. The young woman I admittedly admired for her guts, her sheer determination to fight. The one who lost her family and almost lost a leg in the process.

'_The one who overcame adversity and hardship and spit in the face of giving up,' _I recalled, gooseflesh running up my arms even now, as I remembered his words.

Enten may not know it still, but he convinced me to believe in myself that night.

"Blake," the boy himself asked even as I knew my eyes lost their focus. Still, the sounds of the night greeted me. Yang's breathing behind me. Churning water ahead as Ruby and Weiss stopped and turned around. Bullfrogs. Grasshoppers. Trees.

"You've made noise twice now," Enten continued. "What's wrong?"

I swallowed and, after blinking several times, shook my head. "Just… fighting off doubts."

The boy's eyes narrowed. "Doubts… Lieutenants don't get to have doubts," he said slowly, a small smile growing on his face.

"Lieutenants," Yang muttered behind me. "I'd put Blake at _Captain_ at least. Higher pay-grade!"

Unbidden, a laugh escaped me. From fear to respect to mutual understanding.

'_Such a fool I was, for thinking I wasn't wanted.'_

"I'll stick with lieutenant," I responded, tossing a wry smile at Yang even as the girl blew a raspberry at me in return. Turning, I grasped Enten's fingers with my own, offering the boy a small smile too. "I hear they get along well with inventors."

The taller boy scoffed as he straightened. Even in heels, he had me beat by an inch or two. "Only if lieutenants _share _what's on their mind," he responded, poking my forehead with a finger.

I arched an unimpressed brow even as I caught Ruby crossing her arms out of the corner of my eye. I thought I could just make out a smile on her face and, next to her, Weiss' breathing quieted for the first time since we landed.

"Quiet," I intoned. "I think we all need to be quieter if we want to _stay _on the run. Captured criminals aren't very good criminals, see…"

Enten laughed under his breath and Yang murmured her agreement behind me and, suddenly, I realized that using too many words wasn't that bad after all.

Not when my family was with me.

* * *

_Two hours later – Mistral Swamplands – Blake Belladonna_

"Land," Ruby hissed ahead of me even as the morning sun began to cut lines through the barren trees overhead. The sounds of the swamp's nightlife had long since disappeared in the face of the coming morn and they left in their place an eerie silence. One that was off-putting to me at first but given it had stuck with team RWEBY for an entire hour thus far, I had long since grown used to it.

Normally, complete and utter silence meant something bigger and badder was near. But normally, something bigger and badder would have announced its presence by now…

"Oh thank dust," Yang moaned at my side. "My feet are _killing _me! Twenty percent of you have _no idea _how hard it is to walk in heels through a swamp for _seven _hours!"

"Spare me the drama," Enten sniped as he plodded forward, his stomach rumbling and his shoulders hunched tiredly. "You're welcome, by the way – you can still complain about your heels because-"

"Oh shut up," the blonde snapped, her eyes doing their damnedest to narrow despite the large bags beneath them.

"Guys," Ruby pleaded, whipping around and glancing between her sister and the sole boy on team RWEBY. "Come on, I think I see houses!"

Indeed, in the distance I saw dry land as well. It was raised slightly above the murky swamp waters and there were certainly buildings on top of said land. They were oddly still, though. There was no movement and I thought I saw plenty of caved in roofs and broken-

Water burbled behind me even as Weiss jumped into the verbal sparring session with a demand for the rest of the team to hurry up. I paid her no mind, though, focused as I was on the first non-RWEBY sound I heard in nearly an hour. Carefully, slowly, I turned my head to observe the swamp over my shoulder.

'_Nothing.'_

My eyes narrowed and I studied the tree where the sound emanated for a few moments longer. It was gnarled and old and ugly, like the rest of the trees in the swamp. The base of the plant was hidden by vision obscuring water, as still and unmoving as the rest of the stuff around us. Its branches hung low but they lacked the vegetation necessary for something to hide within.

'_In the water, then,'_ I realized even as I glanced down at my legs. The liquid nearly came up to my knees, now.

"Then _maybe_ we should go see if those people can help us," Weiss hissed some where behind me, water thrashing as she stomped through it, toward Enten's position.

"Oh, _brilliant _plan! Let's just walk up to people who might know we're criminals!"

"What else are we supposed to do," Yang demanded of the boy. "We can't just stand here-"

"We scout out the place first. We ignore the hunger and the thirst and the lack of sleep and think _rationally_ for-"

"Spotlight Citadel happened less than twelve hours ago," Weiss protested. "There's no way they know!"

"You don't know that," Enten stated, his voice confident, even as I looked back to the swamp around us. The water was completely and utterly still once more.

"Guys," Ruby cut in loudly. "Guys! Let's not fight now! We _can't _fight now!"

"Ruby's right," my blonde partner inserted even as I stepped closer to her, coming to a stop between her and Enten. Yang's once intricately styled hair-

I heard another burble in the water and whipped around fast enough this time to catch a ripple emanate across the surface of the water where I heard the sound. This time it was closer to the team, perhaps only twenty or thirty feet away, the length of our dorm room at most.

"What is it," Enten muttered and I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye to find the boy completely neutral, eying me with a focus that belied his lack of sleep.

'_Adrenaline does amazing things,' _I noted, feeling energy creep up my spine as well.

"Something's out there," I murmured, returning my eyes to the murky water. If only I could see through it!

"All the more reason for us to get to land," Weiss stated as she spun about, flinging water in all directions as she began stomping off toward the buildings in the distance.

"Weiss," Ruby called, but the girl ignored her. "Ugh! Vanguard. Blake with Enten. _Go._"

It was a testament to our discipline, as odd as that would normally sound when applied to teenagers, that we obeyed without a second thought. Even Weiss, determined to make land and several body lengths in front of us, immediately returned to the rest of the team and began conjuring glyphs atop the water's surface.

"Good plan," Ruby muttered as she stepped atop the white glowing runes with the rest of the team. "Now go!"

Together, we began sprinting for the shore with everything we had left. Tired and hungry and dehydrated, our best was less than a quarter of our top form. But still, we ran. Still, we stayed in formation.

We were no ordinary teenagers, after all.

"Enten," I barked, watching as the water surged behind us. It looked as though something long and _big _was following us just under the water's surface.

"I see it," he hissed, throwing himself into a roll and coming back to his feet with one of Weiss' glyphs hovering in front of his fist. "It's too fast."

"Bruiser - spearhead," Ruby barked. "Remnant: back-up!"

Enten turned on his heel and threw himself at the surging water without hesitation. I landed in the swamp just behind him even as he roared, his fist flying forward. A pulse of Aura left his hand and it immediately impacted Weiss' glyph, expanding and surging into a thundering wave of pressure that impacted the thing in the water without mercy. It shuddered and I watched the boy dive at the water after his attack even as his free hand tossed his Scroll into the air.

A ghastly, hissing sound emanated from the thing even as it recovered from Enten's attack and the boy's body impacted its now-visible black hide. From the murky water rose a serpentine-like creature, long and muscular and possessing maliciously glowing red eyes. It towered over me, perhaps twice my height, and white, bone-like plates rested atop its head. Two massive fangs, dripping with a viscous substance, protruded from its mouth.

'_Grimm.'_

Reflexively, I grasped Enten's Scroll and swung my leg out at the creature even as it dove at the boy grappling with its midsection. My foot impacted the side of its skull and interrupted its attack. It lunged into the swamp's waters instead of at Enten's back while the boy himself regained his footing.

Quickly, he planted one of his knees in the ground and twisted the serpent's body as it rose once more from the water, this time focused on me.

"Sunny day," Ruby yelled even as the Grimm struck at me. It found only my shadow, an after-image that lashed out at its hide with another kick. I landed a safe distance away even as Yang charged forward with a battle cry on her lips, throwing herself into the air as the serpent recoiled from the blow my Semblance dealt it.

Enten roared suddenly and surged up from the water, dragging with him the body of the Grimm. It was as thick as his waist and a sudden appreciation for how much _strength _it took to move a creature of that size hit me. The boy was heavy and muscular – something that was required of him, given the fact that Ultimatum and the shells that accompanied it weighed almost as much as Weiss and Ruby did, _combined_. But this…

The Grimm was hurled, thrashing about helplessly in the air, toward a nearby tree and it impacted it with a heavy _thud_. The bark gave way and the gnarled trunk snapped in half under the Grimm's weight. The thing hissed and spat angrily even as it began to dive down into the swamp-

A shower of red rose petals signaled Ruby's entrance into the fight and the girl appeared in front of the beast with a frown on her face. Her foot greeted its armored face with a _thwack _and it recoiled, rearing back up above us, even as my leader threw herself back into her Semblance, safely vacating the area just as Yang reached the Grimm.

"Enten," Weiss called, summoning a glyph in front of the boy as he charged after the blonde. He accepted the gesture with a nod of thanks even as my hands fisted and my lips curled into a frown.

We were at a severe disadvantage without our weapons here. The Grimm's hide already proved it could withstand attacks from both myself and Ruby without any trouble. Enten appeared to be the only one capable of dealing any lasting damage to it thus far.

Even Yang could not get through its armor, not without her Semblance being more powerful. And given that required her to take a beating, I did not want to experiment with just how much punishment she would need to take before her fists started hitting hard enough to hurt the creature.

"We need to support Enten," Ruby muttered, watching her sister and the boy himself fight the creature through narrowed eyes. "He can hurt it. We have to make sure he gets that chance."

"Right," Weiss muttered with a nod, bringing up both of her arms in front of her. She swung them around her body, slowly, and as her limbs moved, glyphs appeared around the Grimm and the rest of our team. A full circle of glowing runes, easily numbering several dozen. "Let's do this."

The girl threw herself forward and I promptly lost track of her once she hit one of her glyphs; the speed with which she moved was capable of matching Ruby's Semblance and it was far, far too much for me to see clearly.

"Blake," Ruby continued, only glancing briefly at the fight when Yang was knocked away by the thing's tail. "I need you to keep watch."

I turned from watching Enten deliver another punishing blow to the Grimm's underbelly - assisted by Weiss' interference as she darted from glyph to glyph - to stare at the younger girl.

"I can help," I protested, my eyes wider than normal. The beast had to be at least four times as large as any one of us.

"I know," she said quickly. "But you'll help us more by making sure _another one_ doesn't catch us off guard."

A frown pulled my lips downward even as the Grimm got smart enough to anticipate Weiss' path through the air. It lashed out the girl with its tail and landed a punishing blow on the white haired girl's midsection, tossing her into the swamp. The remaining glyphs all faded.

"Blake!"

"Okay," I bit out, my jaw tense even as Ruby wasted no more time in delaying her entrance into the fight. The girl disappeared into a shower of red rose petals and hurtled forward, as fast as one of Ultimatum's shells. She threw her shoulder into the Grimm's head even as Enten went down in a tangle of limbs, a product of the thing's tail tripping him up.

A scoff escaped me and the frown on my face disappeared. I swallowed once, then twice.

They needed me. They needed my help!

Yang jumped onto the thing's back and immediately began clawing her way up to its head. Enten regained his feet even as it lashed out at Ruby, missing the girl by a wide margin and only catching rose petals in its teeth for its trouble. Weiss was shakily rising from the water some distance away.

This thing was too much for us right now. We didn't have our weapons. We didn't have our wits about us – not after missing a night's sleep. We were hungry. Thirsty. Mentally and physically exhausted.

'_Damnit,'_ I thought as my fists clenched. I couldn't just stand by while this was happening!

The Grimm reared back and threw itself into a tree, flattening Yang against it even as the girl cried out in pain. Enten released a roar in response and threw himself at the beast's underbelly, staggering it. The blonde fell freely, no longer pinned against the tree, and Ruby managed to catch the girl before she hit the water.

My breath left me in the rush through my nose. I could hear nothing but this fight. I could _see _nothing but this fight. It was the focus of my attention to the exclusion-

Something _snapped _behind me and I whirled around to face the buildings on the elevated ground. My eyes darted from dilapidated structure to dilapidated structure. Broken windows. Single floor buildings with collapsed roofs. Peeling paint. Trampled fences. Discarded bikes and cars. But nothing moved. _Nothing_.

Yang screamed behind me – it was a sound that spoke of rage, of anger – and I heard something _big _impact the ground beneath the swamp water. Enten belted out an answering roar of his own and, once more, something _big _hit the ground. It shook with the impact and, in the corner of my eye, I could only just make out wisps of purple Aura dancing across the surface of the water.

'_Purple Aura,'_ I noted absentmindedly, still scanning the buildings. They all looked to be completely and utterly empty from here. Devoid of any movement. Like houses that people abruptly left-

'_Wait,' _I realized, my eyes widening as I spun around again. _'Purple Aura means blood!'_

They were grappling with it – Yang and Enten. My partners and the beast itself were rolling around in the muddy, murky water, thrashing and throwing water every which way. My vision was obscured by the chaos but I clearly saw Ruby and Weiss both keeping their distance from the brawl, their stances uncertain and their faces marred by frowns.

My breath left me in a rush again and I threw myself into a charge. I would _not _stand idly by while my partners – my _family_ – risked their lives and fought in my stead. Not when we needed every bit of strength we could muster.

I hurtled forward, the water announcing its displeasure at being disturbed loudly and obnoxiously but I didn't care about being silent any longer. I didn't care about the houses. I didn't care about my orders. I needed-

The Grimm reared back and Enten's hands followed it. The boy was latched onto the beast's fangs, throwing his weight and his Aura and his strength around and doing everything he could to keep the massive thing close to the ground. He snarled and twisted his body, the muscles of the arm bared by his torn suit bulged and struggled mightily. He pulled once, twice and, on the third heave, the Grimm found itself thrown underwater.

Yang immediately dove on it, her hair simmering and sparking enough to turn the water around her to steam. She yelled and spat and roared even as her fists impacted the flailing Grimm's head. With every blow she landed, white armor cracked and chipped. One punch. Another. Two more. She continued, merciless while Enten's entire body jerked with the effort it took him to hold the creature down.

My footsteps slowed and I came to a halt just as Ruby called my name. I was almost within reach of them now but the Grimm's struggles – which tossed muddy water _everywhere_ – were weakening. My male partner wasn't struggling as much to hold it down and my female partner was just rising to her feet, the better to throw all her weight behind the finishing blow. Her eyes were glowing a furious red, comforting in nature as opposed to the sinister red glow in the Grimm as-

It lurched! The beast flung its entire body to the side and managed to throw Enten off of its head just as Yang's fist descended. The girl found nothing but swamp water, though, as the Grimm raised itself above her-

"Yang," I screamed, desperately throwing myself at the girl. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the beast lunge at the blonde but I reached her first! I shoved her out of the way even as a shadow descended over me.

"_No," _Ruby shrieked, her voice mere inches from my ears.

I turned and found myself nearly face to face with the Grimm but… something was wrong. My leader's foot just impacted the side of its head. It wasn't diving at me… And that was good but my mind was screaming at me. Screaming that something was wrong. Something was wrong!

It wasn't diving for me-

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Yang's yellow hair as the girl landed on her butt in the swamp water. Where I pushed her not a split second before.

And where Ruby just redirected the Grimm's searching maw.

I opened my mouth to yell. To shout. To scream. To do _something_ because one of my most precious people was about to be taken from me!

But I could not. I was frozen, eyes wide in horror. My muscles clenched and my words died in my throat. My arm, stretched outward, hung uselessly in the air.

Ruby grunted suddenly and, just as the Grimm's head obscured my vision of Yang, the younger girl flew haphazardly at the beast's side. The massive head impacted the _ground_. It impacted the _ground_ – a few scarce inches from my blonde partner's side – with a jarring _thud_.

The girl herself only hesitated for a split second before she raised herself up over the dazed Grimm once more and, this time, landed that final, lethal blow. Immediately, the thing's eyes lost their glow and it sunk, unmoving, back into the swamp's cold embrace.

A breath left me. My eyes were wide. I could hear the water settling and Ruby breathing heavily next to me. Weiss was behind me, next to my leader, now. And Enten… he was moving around in the swamp some distance to my right.

But Yang. Yang was alive and in front of me. She wasn't dead. She was whole and breathing and dirty but she was _alive_ despite my mistake. She was still standing in spite of my blunder. Ruby told me to stay back but I didn't. Ruby didn't call for me but I came over anyway. I wanted to help but I only ended up hindering. Hurting.

I should have known by now. I should have realized that I was only good at running _away_. It was all my Semblance did and that was said to be a representation of the soul itself!

"I-I'm sorry," I whispered, my voice cracking as I finished the sentence.

"You should be," Ruby exclaimed. A wince ran up my spine but I kept my eyes on the blonde in front of me.

"If Weiss was like, a _split second _slower then she wouldn't have reached me in time to shove me into big, bad and fugly! Yang's Aura was _already _low and it… You're _so _lucky," the younger girl railed, standing over me. "Yang woulda… Yang- _Don't _do that again!"

The blonde girl in question blinked several times where she sat in the murky water but offered me a smile after a moment's pause. She slowly raised herself to her feet, wincing twice on the way up. The grimace on her face was minute but it was there. She was in pain.

"Aw, come on Ruby," Yang tried even as my leader growled under her breath.

"I told you to stay back for a _reason_," the younger girl snapped. "If I can't trust-"

The water behind Yang exploded suddenly and my eyes widened again when I saw the Grimm – the same one we killed not a minute earlier – lunge at Yang. Its armor was still cracked and it was still beaten down.

But now… Now it was _glowing._ Yellow lines of luminescent power snaked their way up and down its body, pulsing and humming with latent energy. They flashed forebodingly even as the beast's jaws reached my blonde partner.

My mouth dropped open in shock and Ruby started to lean forward. Rose petals began to coalesce around her body even as Yang blindly threw herself to the ground, completely unaware of just _what _the rest of the team was worried about.

But she was not fast enough.

"_Ahh,"_ the girl howled as the beast latched onto her upper leg, one fang sunken deep into the limb. The Grimm immediately began to thrash the girl about and the glowing lines of power snaking their way up its body pulsed like some perverted mockery of veins.

It shook Yang like a rag doll even as the girl screamed and Ruby darted forward in an explosion of petals, a half desperate, half enraged cry upon her lips. My leader threw both of her feet at the base of the monster's skull at the same time I heard Enten let loose an infuriated howl behind me. He stormed forward, purple Aura glowing and whipping and sparking wildly about him even as Weiss began so summon more of her glyphs.

Numbly, I pushed myself to my feet and watched as the Grimm dropped Yang into the water. My breath failed me suddenly when I realized that the girl was not moving. I wanted to go to her, to see if she was okay. To make certain she still lived… but I could not.

I was frozen, hesitant and worried and _afraid_ of what would happen if I interfered. Of what would happen if we did not _run!_

"Blake," Ruby shouted as she appeared over Yang. The girl hurriedly scooped her sister up into her arms and wasted no time in utilizing her Semblance to escape the battle area. "With me! Deep Freeze! Delay!"

Enten shouted again and I heard the report of his Semblance impact the water when I turned to follow my leader toward the shoreline. My mind remained frustratingly blank, crippled by a force that I could not beat back. Paralyzed by terror and the need to escape. To run.

But I could not! I would not leave my team here! _We _needed to run. _We _needed to escape. We needed to get out of here and fight another day for we could not beat this… this monster. Not without our weapons. Not without food in our stomachs. Not as tired and as thirsty and as _weary _as we were.

We could not beat this thing. We could not!

The fear was like a numbing agent, slowing my mental facilities and sapping the strength from my bones. My tired, tired bones. It was too much to bear-

"Blake," Ruby shouted again, kneeling down on the edge of the dry, dirty ground. _"Get over here!"_

My eyes clenched themselves shut and I swallowed heavily. Ruby wanted me to run.

I was good at running.

I rushed forward even as I heard Enten and Weiss continue fighting behind me. I ran away from the conflict and toward one of my most dear friends. The girl that easily became my closest confidante after learning that I was a faunus. The girl that conspired with me over what Sun would do to try and impress me next. The girl that always had a laugh or a joke ready to break me out of whatever funk I inadvertently placed myself in.

And now…

Frustration flooded me even as I knelt down with Ruby and began to dress Yang's wound to the best of my abilities. The girl's leg was completely torn up and my nose immediately picked up the acidic smell of _something _alongside the blood. She had a knot on the top of her head that was already purpling.

But her eyes were what worried me most: they were closed.

"We need to run," I murmured, my voice breaking once more. "We can't beat this thing."

"Yes we can," Ruby responded immediately, her hands flying over Yang's thigh. The blonde's ball gown was torn and the exquisite fabric was quickly fashioned into a makeshift bandage.

I lifted the injured limb so that my leader could apply the cloth and – hopefully – keep Yang from losing any more blood.

There was a lot of blood.

"We ca-"

Enten howled, this time in pain, and Weiss screamed. The boy's shout turned into something more visceral, though, and I heard a loud _boom_ behind me shortly thereafter.

"We can't," I said, my hands shaking and my shoulders hunched. "There are some things you can't beat!"

Red hair. White mask. A male figure flashed through my mind but I stamped it out because I did not need thoughts of _him _right now!

"Yes we can," Ruby repeated, glancing over my shoulder, where Enten and Weiss were fighting. Suddenly, the girl's eyes widened and she pulled me to the ground. "Down!"

I heard something fly over me and impact the ground behind Ruby with a _snap_.

"Of all the times," the girl growled even as Enten yelled behind me once more. "It _had _to find us when we were tired, hungry and thirsty. Without weapons…"

The girl snarled and an expression of such desperate rage filtered onto her face that I could not help but stare. It was such a foreign sight, to see Ruby with anything other than happiness upon her features. She usually sported an inquisitive smile or a playful smirk. It was almost like I was seeing an entirely different person.

Perhaps she felt it too, this hopelessness. She dealt with her emotion by forcing it down whereas I ran from it.

"If you aren't going to help," the girl muttered, glancing at me as I hovered over Yang's body. "Then at least make sure Weiss is okay. _I'm _going to fight."

The words stung and I winced again even as Ruby disappeared in a shower of red rose petals, already barking orders to Enten. The boy would last longer than our leader would, I was certain… his purple Aura seemed tougher and more resilient than his usual energy. Add to that the fact that he a lot of it and I expected him to be capable of fighting for several more minutes at least.

But eventually…

'_We need to run.'_

My jaw clenched and I glanced down at Yang, then at the buildings surrounding us. They were all in various states of disrepair. Broken windows, roofs that were caved in, dilapidated and run down. We were on a road in between two rows of them.

My eyes traveled then to Weiss even as something hit the water behind me, _hard_. I ignored it in favor of watching the white haired girl shuffle around on the ground, one of her arms very cleared broken. It was bad enough that the bone protruded from her skin, even. She was soaked to the bone and her dress was torn and tattered. Still, she struggled to get to her feet.

Belatedly, I realized I should help her and so I pushed myself to my own feet, carefully stepping over Yang. I reached Weiss just as she made it to a knee.

"Don't," the girl spat, swatting my arm away when I reached for her good one. "If you cannot fight then you may as well just run away!"

I recoiled because the girl's words struck at my strongest doubts, at my greatest fears. They assaulted my mind and whispered insidious things. They affirmed what I thought. They told me that I was only a hindrance; they told me that I didn't deserve to be on this team.

They told me that I'd only ever be good at running. At hiding.

'_I am wanted,' _I thought furiously. Desperately.

Weiss huffed as she made it to her feet in front of me and my breath was suddenly caught in my throat. The girl was glowering at me through both her eyes, the ice-blue pupils cold and unfeeling.

"I know you care about Enten. I know you care about Yang," she snarled, shoving me back with her good arm even as Ruby cried out behind me. Weiss' eyes narrowed further. "So why do you hesitate?! Why do you not help?!"

"I tried," I breathed. "I almost killed-"

"But you did not! Yang is alive and now Enten and Ruby are _dying!_"

"I'll only make it worse-"

The girl's hand snapped up and slapped me across the face. The force of the blow turned my head to the side and caused me to step backward.

"Blake Belladonna," the girl muttered darkly, grasping at the front of my dress. "I am unaware of the history you had before Beacon and I do not know why you are so intent on avoiding conflict but sometimes you that choice is not your own to make. Sometimes you _must_ fight whether you like it or not. "

"I kn-"

"_Do not _interrupt me! The last two members of our team are fighting for _our _lives right now! And what are you doing? Moping? Hesitating? Are you going to let them die?!"

"No! We need to-"

"Look at Yang," the girl hissed, latching onto my shoulder with her good hand and spinning me around. Yang lay in a heap before me, her shallow breathing only just audible to my ears. Beyond that, Enten and Ruby threw themselves at the Grimm.

"She knew her Aura was almost depleted. She knew she might die. She knew she might not win that fight but she _tried! _She fought for you! And she expects you to fight for her! Enten is fighting for you! Ruby is fighting for you! Are you going to let them down!? Are you going to-"

"Stop it," I muttered, my head drooping. Guilt joined fear in an insidious union within my head.

'_Why do you hesitate,' the red haired man muttered blandly. 'Those who hesitate will die. Those who hesitate are weak. Those who-'_

"I will not! Our friends- _Your _friends are fighting for you! They are _dying _for you Blake Belladonna! They aren't running! They aren't retreating! They know the stakes and they're spitting in the face of their fear right now! Because I know we are all positively terrified!"

My eyes darted up at the fight once more, observing Enten only just turning away a bite from the Grimm with Ruby's help. It took both of them to even redirect the beast now, such was its power.

"We should…" My mouth moved but no more words came out. I still wanted to run. I still wanted to flee. Even in the face of this guilt, of this fear… I wasn't strong enough!

A man flashed through my head, the same man with red hair. The same one who wore a stark white mask upon his face, over his eyes.

'_Adam.'_

I clenched my eyes shut and fell to my knees, prompting Weiss to huff in disgust behind me.

I was letting them down. I was letting all of them down!

My arms wrapped themselves around my torso and my eyes watered. The tepid waters of the swamps smelled so much worse than they did earlier. The howling and shouting was so much louder now-

"Blake."

My head snapped upward and my eyes immediately made contact with Yang's one good iris. The other was forcibly shut by a massive bruise.

"Blake," the girl whispered, a grin on her face despite… _everything_. "Don't worry… I… I understand. It's'a big one, that's'fer sure… Lot more than we're supposed'ta face…"

The blonde drew in a shaky breath, wincing as she did so. "Enten'll… he'll get it too. Acts tough- all a show."

I blinked several times and my jaw clenched. My fingers wound themselves around the fabric of my gown even as the battle raged on. It was all too much – guilt, fear, acceptance… That Yang would even think to _accept _what I was doing right now was enough to prompt a shiver of complete and utter shock to reverberate up my spine.

To think I had a friend willing to _die _for me. I had a friend willing to die for me and _accept_ me being unable to save her…

I never expected such a thing when I enrolled at Beacon. Never in my life did I think I would find someone like Yang. I never wanted to lose that-

Enten shouted again and I heard bark snap and splinter even as my eyes darted back up to the battle.

The boy was flying through the bare, scraggly trees haphazardly. His body was still surrounded by purple Aura and on his face there was still a scowl. Still a defiant look etched into every hard line on his face.

He was going to fight until the very end.

And he knew it.

I glanced back down at Yang, gooseflesh slowly but surely creeping up my arms. The blonde offered me a pained smile, small and short in nature. But still, she tried.

She too, spat in the face of fear. Of death.

Slowly, even as my breath quickened and my mind began to clear, I glanced back at the Grimm.

The glowing Grimm. The monstrosity that hurt Yang.

A snarl formed on my lips, unbidden, and my shadow began to shift underneath me. A furious breath left my lips.

This beast that so brazenly threatened the lives of my friends. _My family! _

I rose to my feet.

'_No,' _I thought, adrenaline surging through my body. My vision cleared. My muscles tensed. My weariness fled me.

And the voice of the red haired man died.

I moved.

And my shadow _followed_.

My feet flew over the ground and I vaulted over Yang, throwing my shadow ahead of me as I did so. The black form, shaped in my own image, twisted and blurred and _hurtled _forward. It crossed the distance between me and foul monster in a split second.

I felt it. I felt its presence in my head. It hummed, pleased. This was my _Semblance_.

This was _me_.

I threw myself forward and my shadow answered. My world twisted around me and, suddenly, I was right in front of the carcass-that-did-not-yet-know-it.

My Semblance only ever let me run, before.

Now, it would let me _fight_.

I swung my fist at the Grimm's hide before it even so much as turned toward me. My fingers impacted the glowing skin and bounced off, harmless.

Then, my shadow followed.

The blackened fist impacted the same spot on the hide a split second after my own. But it did not bounce off. It did not get deflected.

It _burned_.

The Grimm roared, furious, even as its black skin crackled and fizzed and peeled away in the face of something darker. Some more sinister than even its twisted existence.

It lunged at me, spitting its rage and roaring its defiance.

But I was ready.

My shadow, my cohort, my ally. It danced over the churning swamp water until it was behind the Grimm.

Until _I _was behind the Grimm.

I coiled the muscles in my legs as soon as I touched the ground where my shadow – a living, corporeal entity, now – stood. My Semblance hummed, pleased, in my mind even as I jumped into the air. One foot kicked off of the back of the Grimm's hide and my shadow's foot followed, burning and searing the _thing's _skin once more.

But I was not done. I _would not _be done. Not until this abomination lay dead and dying, once and for all.

I vaulted off the branch of a tree above the Grimm's head and twisted in the air, throwing myself into a flip even as it reared its head back, roaring its anger to the swamps surrounding it.

The very lands that would serve as its grave.

My leg came down _hard _on the atrocity's head, its damaged armor negating most of the force behind the blow. Still, I stunned it briefly.

And then, my shadow _followed_.

Its leg came down atop my own and brushed aside the white armor plating with a contemptuous ease. The Grimm howled once more and its head nearly split down the middle, crackling and _fleeing _from the dark power being forced into it.

_My _power. My _real _power. It was long past time I _accepted _what I was.

Limp, it fell into the swamp and began thrashing about in what I imagined was agony.

"So Grimm can feel pain," I muttered, a scowl on my lips even as I rebounded from my blow, landing on my feet in a nearby tree.

But I was not done. This Grimm did not see. It did not understand. It did not comprehend just how much of a mistake it made when it attacked my team.

Because, though it may have taken me far, far too long to realize it, I wasn't going to let _anything _take my family away from me.

My shadow, so often used to retreat, led the charge.

It surged forward, a black storm of power, passing harmlessly through the Grimm as it shook its head in the murky waters of the swamp.

Then, as it came to stand at the beast's side, I moved.

My world spun away into grays and blacks and whites and my vision twisted itself into nothingness and then reformed just as quickly.

I was one with my shadow once more. Together, we stood at the atrocity's flank.

Carelessly, I ducked under its thrashing tail.

It was with a sense of finality and a grin on my face that I plunged my hand into the disgusting flesh of its head.

And so, my shadow followed.

It shrieked and thrashed and wailed. Whipping its body around in a panicked frenzy even as I watched it die. Smoke began to rise from its flesh and the yellow power coursing through its body crackled and sparked angrily.

The horror lurched and, because its physical strength still eclipsed my own by a wide margin, I was forced to release it.

And so, my shadow followed.

"Whoa," I heard Ruby mutter somewhere behind me.

I did not care. I wanted to make absolutely certain that this… this _thing _was dead and would remain so. _Permanently._

My feet guided me forward, toward the monster even as its struggles weakened and it slowly gave into the only embrace I would offer it.

Death.

"Be thankful," I muttered as I came to a stop next to its mangled skull. I lifted my foot into the air. "A quick death is more than you deserve."

I slammed my foot into the thing's eye socket.

And so, my shadow followed.

It shrieked and weakly raised its head once but the blow was already dealt.

Its fate, already decided.

Black dust rose up out of the swamp even as the creature sank down into it. I kept my foot planted in its skull still. I wanted to make certain it would not be coming back a second time. That it remained dead because another attack on my team was _not _tolerable.

Slowly, I breathed in. The swamp smelled so, _so _much better now.

An idle grin grew on my face even as I felt the last of the abomination's bones wither away under my feet.

Just where it belonged.

"Uh, Blake," Ruby ventured, her voice a short distance behind my right shoulder, where I heard her come to a stop several seconds prior.

"I'm sorry," I said shortly, disregarding the Grimm's death without a second thought and spinning around to face the girl. The grin on my face twisted into a frown. I had much to answer for.

"Uh," she stammered, her eyes wide and locked onto mine even as she flinched away from me. "Don't worry-"

"Don't write this off. We aren't at Beacon anymore. I can't freeze up like that. _Ever. _Not out here. Not outside the safety of Beacon's walls… I can't- I _won't_ be ruled by my fears any longer."

With that, a grim feeling of determination filled me with the need to change. To _adapt _to my new life as a criminal alongside my team. It was that same determination that guided my hands to the top of my skull, where my bow still rested. The object that hid away my nature from the world. The thing I once thought of as a safe guard. An essential and necessary part of living a full life.

How foolish I was, to run from my very nature. To flee from _myself_.

But I was done running, now.

I knew who I was. I knew the things I was capable of doing. And, at long last, I _accepted _that.

"This bow is the last vestige my fears have," I informed the girl even as my fingers pulled the ribbon from my head. My ears, free at long last, twitched.

The air felt good on them, humid as it was. It was a far cry better than being hidden.

A pleased smile pulled my lips upward.

"No more," I whispered, tossing the length of cloth away. It fluttered down to the surface of the murky, vision-obscuring water slowly, lazily. My eyes tracked its descent and watched it when it made contact with the swamp itself. They observed even as the bow was pulled underneath the surface of the liquid, never to be seen again, much like the Grimm I just killed.

"No longer," I decided quietly. "No more running. No more hiding. No more fear."

Ruby shook her head, her mouth moving mutely even as her eyes widened and her fingers fussed with the hem of her dress. The digits were dirty and scuffed, not bleeding but certainly not pristine either. The dress upon her shoulders was torn around her midsection and both of the pantyhose she utterly loathed were in tatters. Her hair, like the rest of her appearance, was disheveled and speckled with mud.

"Sorry," I said one last time as I moved around her, toward where Enten and Weiss were hovering over Yang.

'_Yang!'_

My feet carried me forward swiftly, heedless of the noise the water made as it was disturbed. Gone was the time where silence mattered. Shattered was the inconspicuous nature of our landing in Mistral.

Silence would not help us any longer. Sneaking would not conceal the signs of battle here. Our trail was no longer hidden and our way forward would not involve trying to stay under the radar of whomever was sent after us.

No… Now, we would have to _fight_.

"Blake," Enten greeted me as I knelt in front of him, on the opposite side of Yang's body. The boy's hands were pressing down on the blonde's thigh but still, blood escaped between his fingers.

"Why is she still bleeding," I asked, glancing up at him. My female partner's breathing was still faint. Her pulse, slow.

He shrugged, his eyes darting up to mine before returning to Yang. "I- Whoa," he muttered, looking back up at me. "Lookin' good, lieutenant."

"The lieutenant fought from the get-go," I noted. "I didn't."

"Maybe. But you and she both fought when it mattered," he responded, nodding in my direction even as Weiss shifted next to me. "You look good, really. I like your ears… and you know one of your eyes is blue, right?"

My smile that formed when he complimented my ears – it meant _a lot _to me to hear him say that – morphed into a frown. My white haired teammate glanced at my face from her position on the ground and Ruby, who had just reached us, nodded.

"Yup," the younger girl confirmed. "It's kinda intimidating. Like what you did with your Semblance!"

Slowly, I looked away from her and leaned over a puddle near my side. There were many of them, even on this relatively dry piece of land. The waters of the swamp left nothing untouched, much like the Grimm that inhabited them. The ruins of an extensive suburban area just behind me was all the proof I needed of that. In the distance, I could see high rise buildings, each several stories tall, but near us there were only houses. Single story abodes that undoubtedly once housed families and communities and _people_.

But then, the Grimm came.

And like so many other things on Remnant, they destroyed this community mercilessly.

"Huh," I murmured, pulling myself away from the depressing thoughts as the face of a girl took form in the puddle. Her eyes were narrowed and her brow was furrowed ever so slightly. She looked… fierce. Confident. Nothing like what I saw in the mirror every morning. No doubts. No fears hidden in her pupils. No hunched shoulders or twitchy ears or shifty eyes.

Self-assured. Poised. Confident.

Atop the girl's head were a pair of ears, black furred and attentive. Her cheeks were thin but not quite gaunt and her cheekbones were high and regal. A small nose and tiny lips, alongside a pair of human ears beneath the feline pair, almost completed the face.

The only feature remaining was her eyes.

'_My eyes.'_

One golden yellow, one ice blue. The left one remained the same color it had always been but the right eye was now cool blue in color and sported an intensity that was completely foreign to me.

And, of course, there was her shadow.

'_My shadow.'_

It hung over her shoulder, an ethereal figure devoid of any defining features. Its face was blank and it had no eyes nor mouth nor nose nor ears. A tangled mass of energy – twisting and waving and _moving _– hung from its head in a sinister imitation of hair. No sound emanated from the shadow and it followed the girl's movements exactly, half a second slower than the actual move itself.

I blinked and the girl imitated me.

_Me._

'_I… I like this,' _I thought as my lips pulled up into a smirk. I felt _good_.

Yang coughed weakly behind me then and I turned back to my team immediately, my reflection and my shadow pushed from my mind with but a thought.

This was my life, now. The life of a criminal once more. But this time, I was not afraid.

No… that emotion would belong solely to my enemies.

"Can we… Did we miss anything," Weiss asked quietly, kneeling in the dirt next to me. Given how particular she was with cleanliness, I could only imagine how irritated being made to sit on the ground made her.

But then, team RWEBY had bigger things to worry about now. I knew Weiss well enough to know that she realized that.

Enten shrugged even as he kept his palms pressed down on Yang's leg. "We wrapped it up… short of cauterizing it…"

"We don't have anything hot enough," Ruby noted, her voice carefully devoid of any emotion. Her eyes were constantly moving, though, roving up and down the body of her sister with a wideness that betrayed the calm in her voice. She was worried.

"She'll be fine," I decided, as much for my leader as for myself. Yang couldn't be anything _but _fine.

"She's still bleeding-"

"She'll be fine."

"Let me finish," Enten snapped, his eyes narrowed in my direction. "She's still bleeding but… my Aura is, uh… reacting to it."

"Reacting, how," Weiss asked slowly, her eyes now locked onto the boy's hands.

He shrugged. "It feels like… Like," he shook his head, his eyes staring, unfocused over my shoulder. "Like… Aura?"

"Your Aura feels like Aura? Great. Is it helping my sister?"

"I don't know," he admitted, glancing back at Ruby. "It's hard to explain and I can't tell Aura apart very well much less _blood_ but I _know _my Aura is going… somewhere… And I'm not getting any more purple Aura either so…"

"So," I ventured quietly, my eyes locked onto Yang's face. Her eyes were shut and her brow was lax – she looked so peaceful. "So, you think you're giving her blood?"

"Maybe," he muttered, uncertainty in the form of a high pitch infusing his voice. "There's nowhere else for my Aura to go and I can tell it's going _somewhere_… I wonder if blood type matters?"

"You're o-positive," Ruby muttered as she leaned over the boy's shoulder. "Yang's b-positive. You're fine."

"How…"

"Perks of being a leader," the younger girl said, a humorless grin on her face as she looked up at Weiss.

Silence fell over us then and my ears, now free and oh so much more effective because of it, picked up a crackling sound behind us, farther into the abandoned ruins. It sounded like wood snapping under the weight of something.

Something _big_.

"Company," I muttered as I rose to my feet, only then realizing just how _weary _I was. My bones ached and my muscles protested every movement I made. My eyes watered with the movement and I felt my Semblance, a stalwart presence that lingered constantly in the back of my mind, fade.

A frown on my face now, I glanced down at my arm to find just what I suspected.

My shadow was gone. Or rather, my shadow was now just a normal silhouette of my figure on the ground.

"Grimm," Ruby wondered quietly, coming to stand next to me. "Why else would anyone… Unless they're looking for us- Can you hear words?"

"No words," I murmured, closing my eyes. It was growing closer, the sound. I could hear it getting louder and louder but that still left it perhaps half a dozen buildings away from us. A long-

_Another _snap on the opposite side of the lane between the ruined buildings attracted my attention. And then another. And another. And another.

All around us, now, I could hear things approaching and now, close as they were, I could hear breathing too.

Animalistic inhales of air. Snarling. Growling.

"Grimm," I confirmed quietly, opening my eyes once more. A scowl pulled at my face.

"I can't move," Enten reminded us. "Yang's already pale and I'm the only thing standing between her and-"

"Don't worry, I know," Ruby said, her voice bordering on a hiss. Her tone was shrill and she was speaking quickly. Her eyes were wide in what I thought was panic. "Weiss. How are you feeling?"

"Aside from the broken arm-"

"_Without _the snark, please."

"Tired, but able. You want glyphs?"

"We'll need them," Ruby said amid a nod even as her head turned toward the closest of the approaching Grimm. Beowolves, by the sound of them. A lot of them.

"My Semblance is gone," I muttered, trying in vain to bring my shadow back. The attempt left me light-headed and my stomach growled loudly. My throat and my lips were bone dry.

Still, even the old version of my Semblance would not answer.

"I think we're all at our limit," Ruby noted severely. "My Semblance was getting real hard to use toward the end of that fight…"

Weiss hummed. "I can manage a time dilation glyph…"

"Save your strength," Ruby responded. "We should… we should find a building to hide in. Funnel them into a-"

"There you are," a loud, grisly voice said all of the sudden, just behind us. "You sure know how to worry a guy."

My head whipped around even as Ruby released delighted gasp. A man clad in black pants, a white coat with folded back sleeves and a wide collar stood just behind Enten and Yang. There was a red cape hanging from the back of his shoulders, down to his waist, and a blade on his back that I could only just see... It looked as though it was broken, cut off cleanly just after the red and black hilt ended.

Several things happened all at once, then. The new man scratched at the stubble – salt and pepper gray, like his short hair – on his chin and narrowed his eyes. Ruby whirled around and threw herself at the man while Weiss and I looked on. Enten, his eyes wide for if _I _missed the man's approach then he most certainly did as well, threw himself over Yang's body in a roll, coming up with the girl in his arms and spinning to face the man alongside myself and the former Schnee heiress.

"Uncle Qrow," Ruby screeched, impacting the man in a massive hug. "How did you know we were here?!"

My muscles uncoiled at the sign of affection and Enten relaxed next to me too. He held our blonde partner close to his body and I realized belatedly that he even managed to put the injured side of her leg against his torso.

"You know this man," Weiss asked for the rest of us even as our leader released the figure.

"Yeah," Ruby chirped, a wide smile on her face as she turned to face us. "This is Uncle Qrow and-" She paused, sniffing at the air. A grimace came over her face at about the same time the… _stench _hit me as well.

A scowl pulled my lips downward immediately and I brought a hand up to my nose. The air was heavy with the stink of sweat and unwashed, dirty clothing. The noticeable presence of body odor was there too and, lastly but certainly not least, the smell of alcohol lingered around us now, too.

"Guh," my leader scoffed, holding her nose. "You need a bath!"

The man scoffed, a minute smile at the edge of his lips. "No more than you, squirt."

A growl behind me silenced us as a whole and I turned back toward the ruins to find no less than three dozen beowolves emerging from the embrace of the buildings. Their eyes, glowing with an inhuman red light, took us in greedily and from their lips poured an endless diatribe of snarls and growls and barks.

The man – Qrow, as Ruby called him – returned the gesture with a growl of his own.

"Stand back," he said, quiet but determined as his hand drifted to the blade at the small of his back. "I'll take care of these things and then you're going to tell me _exactly _what happened at that pompous mansion."

Enten and I shared a glance, then. We hesitated.

He arched an eyebrow and his eyes darted toward the older man.

I scowled but offered him a shrug of my shoulders. What else could we do but trust him. Besides, Ruby seemed to know him and, for now, that was enough for me.

So, we stepped aside as the man stalked by us, a heavy scowl on his face. He pulled the blade from the straps on his back and it immediately extended, easily tripling its length until it stretched to half the man's height in four, segmented lengths. Each piece of the blade came together with a _clang_ and formed a seamless, deadly edge.

'_Wide,' _I noted.

"Let's get this over with," he muttered, charging forward at a speed only Ruby and Weiss could hope to match.

The Grimm did not last long.

* * *

**A/N: **Alright minions! Who can figure out what chapter Blake's flashback came from? The 'family' one! Anyone?!

**For clarity: **The Vytal Festival begins in two weeks. The Schnee Ball was on a Saturday night and the events of this chapter take place on the following Sunday morning. The Festival itself will start in two weeks, on Monday. In **RWBY canon**, the team would just now be disrupting Torchwick in Mountain Glenn.

Now, as a couple people have noted, a fork bomb is more of an annoyance than a catastrophic event… in our world. The RWBY world has consistently revealed itself to be far more easily manipulated than the cyber security protocols we enjoy here on Earth. Cinderfall was able to hack the CCT (a _world-wide _system, like our _entire internet_) in what appeared to be thirty seconds to a minute flat and consequently plant a virus that allowed her fellows to usurp control over the tournament match-up protocol and an _entire army of mechanical soldiers._

What. The. Fuck.

That all those systems are so interconnected is mind blowing in and of itself. That suggests that either firewalls don't exist in Remnant or that some hapless security tech is about to be fired. At the very least, the stadium should have its own _self-contained _server farm to handle the match-ups because those match-ups will never occur outside of the stadium. It makes zero sense to host that process anywhere but the stadium given it always travels with the Vytal Festival.

Needless to say, I'm not too impressed with Remnant's virtual security. Enten comes from a world where everything is so heavily monitored and locked down that a fork bomb would be laughed off as a pest that took down a site for a few hours.

In Remnant?

Well, we'll just have to see, won't we! And don't forget – the _concept _of a fork bomb comes from Earth… Remnant _might_ have something similar but I'll take a few liberties and assume they largely have no idea what it does.

And once _Enten _figures that out… well, he'll have some fun, won't he?

Anywho – I got on RT's forums for the first time since the season three finale (RWBY Chibi, anyone?) and only just realized how many people didn't expect the turn canon RWBY took there toward the end. That, frankly, surprised me; the show had been hinting at things going bad since midway through season two. Way back when RWBY uncovered a plot orchestrated by Roman and the White Fang. And then when Roosterteeth followed through with the implied darker theme, people get cold feet and act surprised?

Let's just throw a society constantly threatened by soulless killing machines, mix in some racism, put a _target _of that racism on the PoV team, sprinkle in a little militant faunus spice and make said PoV team a primary opponent against the big baddies. That's RWBY in a nutshell and it has been since seasons one and two, when they built up the character backgrounds. Nothing changed in season three but for the fact that the real world made a visit to Beacon.

But I've ranted enough. People whining that the show 'wasn't really RWBY anymore' just spurred me into pointing out that it's _always _been RWBY and that hasn't changed.

**Lastly (please read this because bold text means important): **I'm moving over the next two weeks, so the next chapter will drop on _May 6!_

And now, onto my reviewers:

**Nemrut: **Have faith! When have I not put thought into a character's motive before? Hagel had his reasons to do what he did and just because I fleshed out Beacon so well doesn't mean I won't flesh out Mistral too! Thanks for your thoughts!

**Mr. Numero Dos: **Hagel has a reason to hide in the darkness… Though I still think he should be nicknamed 'Poorly lit CEO of SDC'. Also, listened to We are the Hearts – it's a little slow for me but the message in the lyrics and the _flow _of the song more than make up for it! Thanks for the review and the suggestion!

**Name Change: **Formal parties have a time and place but I was reaching my limit there too… just had too much to do! A few thoughts: middle finger fad in Remnant should be a thing and I'm going to endeavor to make it a thing from this point on. Pyrrha and Enten will… eventually… come to a compromise of sorts. Also, I'll look into the Pyrrha saying that's the fourth time Enten tried to kill someone. There was Jaune via Cardin, the DMND fire laser incident, the party… I wonder why I said four? At any rate, thanks for your review! (And to your later review: Luna and Phoebe will make an appearance eventually but suffice to say, they don't believe the hype!)

**Fanficobsessed15: **I'm taking some liberties and generalizing the knitty-gritty details for the sake of keeping the fic readable, but it's an accurate view of how hacking might occur. Thanks for your review!

**Stenzle: **Google 'linux make file executable'. It's sort of a letdown because it's so simple, haha! Thanks for your thoughts and good luck with your classes! (I'll also do my best to keep spoiling you with quality chapters)

**Thesecretsix: **Wasn't me – but you've got the code right there! Such an innocent jumble of characters… Thanks for your review!

**Theroosterteeth: **JNPR will actually be making a reappearance (alongside the rest of Beacon) in a couple of chapters here… team RWEBY has to get their weapons somehow, right?! Thanks for your thoughts!

**Faenrir: **You were one of the few people to wonder how Taiyang and Qrow would take this… it won't be well and it certainly won't be passively. The beehive has been kicked and the bees are gathering! As for Weiss vs Yang, you make good points with respect to both characters but we haven't seen Yang's PoV on team RWEBY yet. Weiss has gotten her PoV chapter and it gave me a chance to really explore her character deeper than I could with Enten acting as a lens. Only time will tell, I suppose! Thanks for your thoughts!

**Satan's Bumhole: **Frankly, I would have responded to this even if you were just trolling. Your name alone deserves recognition. Coincides nicely with review 666! Hah! Now… Yang's hair may or may not be 'taken care of' while she's out. And Enten may or may not 'be absent' when she wakes up. As far as the virus goes: Enten had no knowledge of Schnee servers or where they keep their money or how those servers are configured. I suppose I could have taken some liberties for the sake of awesomeness but my realist overruled that when I was writing the chapter! You hit on both of my beefs with OC stories in your review too (OP OC that always saves and day and a rewrite of canon plus one). Another one is the 'my OC can never fail' trope, the kind of OC that never gets embarrassed or scared and never hates anyone but the villains (sometimes that even happens without reason) because the story and characters conveniently change around them to prevent that from happening. But I'm ranting. I'll leave you with the knowledge that they're about two weeks before the Vytal Festival begins, roundabouts when team RWBY disrupts Torchwick in Mountain Glenn.

Till next time readers!

-Phailen


	38. Chapter 38

_30 minutes later – Mistral Swamplands – Ruins of Mistral Trade Route City_

"When I come back, I want this place spotless," Qrow called, his lips curled into the same thin line that Goodwitch favored. His eyes, narrowed such that the skin pulled tight in its stress, turned their sights on Ruby. "Got that squirt? Not a single thing out of place."

"Uh," the girl stammered, her own eyes widening in surprise. "Got it…" Even as she spoke she toed a loose floorboard by her feet and promptly flinched away when a large bug skittered out from underneath it.

"Good," the man responded, nodding decisively as he ran a hand through his salt-and-pepper gray hair. He turned and made his way toward the – empty – doorway. The actual door sat in splintered pieces just outside. "I've been thinking about getting a welcome mat for this place. Gotta be hospitable when the villains come knocking, you know?"

"I think you should worry about the lack of walls first," Blake suggested, her ears drooping as a yawn escaped her throat. Despite the weariness in her expression, the girl still managed to infuse her voice with a sarcastic edge. That fact prompted me to smile.

Remnant would not beat us down so easily. It would take more than Schnee and his schemes to end us.

Far, _far _more.

Qrow snorted and gestured toward one of the two remaining intact walls that the single story building sported. "It _has _walls."

"A ceiling would be nice too," Ruby inserted, craning her neck to glance at the open sky above our heads. Based upon the sun's position, it was probably late morning. A full twenty four hours since we'd last slept and just over twelve since the Schnee Ball.

"Some people want everything," the man griped, backing away from us until he was actually in the doorway-that-lacked-a-door. "I'll go get some clothes and food. And water. And… well, stay put. No adventures. No exploring and _please _don't mess up my hideout!"

He took a moment to stare each of us down individually. Ruby first, then Weiss, Blake and, lastly, me. Yang was still unconscious and currently being carried in my arms. The wound on her leg remained pressed against my torso and even now I could feel the miniscule pull on my Aura that indicated I was giving her blood.

It was reassuring to me, that drain on my Aura. It told me that the girl still lived and breathed and still fought for her life. It was as much her lifeline as it was mine – I was honestly uncertain of just what I would do if she died. I didn't really like to think about it.

Yang was… Yang was special to me. She was my first friend that stuck around on Remnant. The first one to put up with my attitude, with my admittedly dreary outlook on life. The first one to _accept _me. Others came and went as I grew but they were all put off at one point or another by how my brain worked. By that damnable need to survive that aided me physically just as much as it ailed me socially.

None of them understood, but that was to be expected. Children who met me when I was younger had no idea why I was so serious or so quiet or so observant. They did not know just how dangerous their world really was, fooled into a state of complacency as they were by the towering walls surrounding Vale. Walls they believed protected them from any and all dangers.

But I knew better. I had my experience on Earth to contrast with my experience on Remnant. It told me that this world was out for blood. That your life might be taken at any point in time, viciously and mercilessly, for no reason at all.

It was no small wonder then that the kids at my old orphanage began avoiding me as much as I avoided them.

Despite the fact that I _tried _to fit in, despite the fact that I _tried _to emulate them, I could not. Not entirely. I could not fake the innocent happiness that so many children exuded. I could not become as careless as they were because I knew better. I worried. I planned. I observed. I survived.

And they found that off-putting. All of them. Every last one. They were all alienated.

Except Yang.

Yang was… Yang was something else entirely.

That day I joined that martial arts class, she marched up to me and introduced herself with a confidence that was not new to me. Some children were confident and she just so happened to be one of them. She was loud. She was brash. She was bold.

I'd seen it all before. I expected her confidence to fade and her ego to recede the first time I upset her in a sparring match. I expected her to push me away and lick her proverbial wounds for though she won the spar, I certainly played the mind games better than she. I knew where to poke, where to prod. I knew how to tear her down and I did; I made her angry enough to get her hair simmering and I fully expected her to avoid me once the spar was over.

The better to observe the rest of the class, I knew.

But she didn't. She didn't push me away or shun me or throw moody, dark glares my way as I'd experienced so many times before. She did not mind that I upset her. She did not care that I could frustrate her enough to make her completely lose her temper.

No, instead the damnable blonde declared me her new sparring partner, very loudly, very publically and very adamantly.

An idle grin pulled at my lips even as I recalled that day. It was the first time I had been surprised in a long, long time. Years, even.

But I did not let it shake me. Not for long. I returned to my habit of sitting and observing. I needed to know how to behave among this new group of children to fit in as best I could, to facilitate my transition into the group. Whenever I was not sparring or practicing, that was what I did.

Business as usual, I sat and watched. But this time it wasn't so usual. It was different.

Yang sat and watched with me.

I did not acknowledge her, not at first. The most verbose response she received from me for the first few weeks was a grunt or a scoff. I scarcely even looked in her direction.

In hindsight, I now realized that she made me uncomfortable and that I tried to deal with that by ignoring her. By trying to push her away. She was an unknown and I didn't enjoy having my assumptions of how children behaved unbalanced by one precocious blonde.

Such a fool I was.

She was relentless, this girl. When I went to get a drink of water, she was there. When I went to pack up once class was over, she was there. When I started to walk home, she was there. Sometimes, when I _got _home, she was there too, having walked or even ridden her motorcycle alongside me.

It was _absolutely _maddening.

Not because she would not leave me alone, but because I could not figure out why it didn't bother me! Yang should have been my least favorite person on Remnant given her behavior. She followed me, hounded me relentlessly and left me little time to watch and observe and I worried that I would not be able to fit in with the martial arts class and if I could not fit in then people would start asking questions and questions would lead to answers that I _would not_ give! And it was all because of this stupid blonde!

But then, I realized something. One day at class, I found that the other kids had already accepted me. I realized that I was already part of their group. They included me without me being any the wiser. I didn't even need to adjust how I behaved.

And why did they do that? Why did they see me as one of their own despite the fact that I'd only been around for a few weeks? I hadn't spoken more than a few words to most of them and never had I made an effort to be outgoing.

It was all, of course, the doing of Yang Xiao Long.

They knew, these children. They commiserated. They shared stories of the blonde's shenanigans that they'd experienced. They lamented the fact that she made me her only sparring partner and offered their sympathy at the beatings to come. They laughed and jibed and tossed jokes at Yang and it was then that I realized _she _was the glue that bound this class together.

Because Yang took an interest in me, so too did these children. _She _linked us together and I never even realized it until it was already done.

It was then that I stopped observing the class and took an interest in Yang. No child before had enough confidence in him or herself to do what she did. No one I knew could laugh off playful insults or friendly barbs at her persistence and then _continue _to be just as persistent without even batting an eyelash.

_I _wasn't even that confident in myself. Not back then.

But she was… Yang was unique. She was one in a million.

The blonde even managed to sense my interest. She stopped hounding me so constantly and didn't talk quite as much when she sat next to me, like she was content. Like she _knew_. Like she was aware that she'd broken through to me.

Her social prowess left me absolutely bewildered. She had an instinctive knowledge of how to bring people together that I knew I would never be able to imitate. The ability to make friends out of anyone and everyone simply because she _willed_ it.

To this day, even, that was something that confounded me.

Suffice it to say, I was intrigued. And that intrigue eventually turned into friendship and… and the rest was history.

The pull on my Aura pulsed suddenly and it harshly drew me from my fond memories. I only just kept myself from flinching away from the familiar burn that followed said pulse.

It was just like the burn from the energy in Emerald's forehead after all, only now it was present too in Yang's leg.

My lips turned downward in a grimace even as I turned my back on the room at large to lay the blonde on the dirty floor. Carefully, I set her head on the ground and gathered up the scraps of my suit coat to pad the back of her skull. That done, I moved the torn remains of her dress away from her thigh and began to peel back the bandage even as my tired arms protested the activity vehemently. I ignored the pain, though, because my blonde teammate was far more important than my discomfort.

I placed one hand on her wound again, only the slightest hesitant pause indicating something was amiss. Her skin was cold and clammy when my fingers came into contact with it. The wound was warm but the thick, viscous liquid that still secreted from it was worrying.

And then, there was the burning.

I thought nothing of it at first. When I first laid my hands on the injury, back in that clearing near the edge of the swamplands, I thought the sharp, biting pain was just the acidic substance infusing the ruptured skin. I thought it would fade with time as the venom was cleansed from her system.

But it did not fade.

If anything, it grew stronger.

"Right," Qrow said slowly behind me, returning my attention to him. He had his arms in front of him, fingers splayed, as though he was warding off danger. "Just… stay put. Stay. Sit. Sleep."

Ruby groaned and allowed her shoulders to hunch. "We'll be _fine _Uncle Qrow. Don't worry."

"Ruby, you're about as _fine _right now as Schnee's going to be when I get my hands on him," the man shot back, a scowl on his face. His hand, now placed upon the frame of the doorway, tightened until the wood cracked. "And just _wait _until Taiyang finds out about this… I don't think you've ever seen him angry – with good reason."

Weiss placed herself against one of the building's intact walls with a huff; it was near where I laid Yang on the ground and drew my attention away from Ruby and her uncle because of it. The white haired girl had been holding up admirably since we left the airship but I could not help but wonder when the situation would fully occur to her. She was a criminal now, wanted for attempted mass murder and disowned by her family because of it. The desperate adrenaline on which she was running probably wouldn't let her stop and think about where she could go from here. What she would do. Who she could count on.

No, I was certain there was a breakdown coming and I planned on being there to support her through it.

She would always be able to count on her team.

Movement on my side brought my attention to Blake. The girl placed herself on the ground beside me just as I put my other hand on Yang's wound.

We had the cat faunus to thank for our lives. The girl shrugged off her fears – something that must have taken a titanic amount of effort given the amount of time they plagued her – and came into her own just when her team needed her most. She stood taller now and I noted her chin was held just a little higher too.

Blake was almost an entirely different person now.

"What's up lieutenant," I murmured even as I began to feel the energy in Yang's wound burn away my skin. Almost there… I needed my purple Aura to do away with the caustic entity completely.

I also needed Qrow gone.

When the man learned that Yang was bitten by that glowing Grimm, he immediately made to rush her off toward a place he called Liar's Landing for aid. It took Ruby reassuring him no less than three times that I was the only thing keeping her sister above water for the man to back off. Even so, he hovered incessantly for several minutes afterward.

If he saw me drawing something out of Yang's leg then another onslaught of worried-uncle-questions would likely follow. Given how delicate a process it was for me to control that volatile energy, I did not want to be distracted by a – rightfully – concerned family member.

I understood his anxiety, I felt it myself.

Apparently no one ever lived after being bitten by _a _glowing Grimm, as in _one _Grimm of many. The one we faced was not alone and these monsters evidently possessed a venom so potent that every single person bled to death after being injected with it.

Every single one.

Except Yang.

Yes, I could certainly understand the man's concern.

All the same, I could not risk losing focus while I drew the energy out of my teammate.

The blonde inherited the unenviable role of being a guinea pig for the poison, after all. Nothing was known about it except for the fact that it boasted a one-hundred percent fatality rate. No one who could sense Aura – because there _were _others who could do it – ever came into contact with it and so it followed then that no one knew about the energy infusing the venom.

No one but me, anyway.

"Can you feel anything," Blake asked, her eyes – both yellow again – riveted on the blonde's leg.

"Yes," I breathed, my voice barely above a whisper. The girl's ears twitched. "That energy is back."

The girl's jaw clenched. "Can you…"

"Yes. Not with him here, though."

The girl's ears twitched again as Qrow and Ruby spoke behind us. I turned fully to face her just as the caustic energy began to draw blood.

"Do you need me to get rid of him?"

Her eyes narrowed and, slowly, I saw one bleed blue.

Cold. Confident. Determined. This was the new Blake.

Quite frankly, I was impressed.

"No violence," I murmured. "He's on our side… Just hurry. I want this energy out of Yang _now_."

The girl nodded and rose to her feet. Her fingers remained lax and her muscles uncoiled. Then, I saw it.

Her shadow.

It reared up over her shoulder like a ghastly specter, featureless and completely, utterly silent. Unnerving was the void of sound left in its wake, conjured by its very presence. There was no rustle of clothing, no intake of breath, no voice to be heard or eyes upon which I could focus; there was nothing.

_Nothing_.

It was like I was staring into a void. An empty space. Something that didn't even exist, that shouldn't even _be_.

And, somehow, I thought it stared back.

Soundless, the being slunk down Blake's body and onto the floor before even a split second had passed since it appeared. It crawled, black and formless, over the decrepit floorboards. Like a flowing cloth, it squeezed between the cracks of a wall and then, it was gone.

I released the breath that I hadn't been aware I was holding. Once, twice, I blinked and turned back to Blake.

Only to find the girl gone.

Weiss huffed and I glanced at her to find the girl eying me from behind her knees – she'd drawn them up to her chest when she slumped against the wall – with a single eyebrow raised.

I shook my head.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Stop the train," Qrow said behind me, louder than he'd previously been speaking. "Where's dark, silent and moody?"

I pulled my hands away from Yang's wound, carefully manipulating my purple Aura into hiding within my hands as I did so.

"She decided to take first watch," I offered quietly, glancing over my shoulder. Ruby looked alarmed but not too bothered by Blake's absence. The lack of panic in both mine and Weiss' expressions was reassuring to her, no doubt. She did not know of the plan sent into action but she did not need to be told not to worry all the same.

Such was our bond, our trust in one another. Words were largely unnecessary.

Still, investing some time into developing phrases or code words might be a smart thing to do. Having a language all our own that we could speak aloud and not have to worry about drawing suspicion to ourselves could only benefit us, even more so now that we got to experience the… enviable luxury of having criminal charges pressed upon us.

Definitely something to keep in mind – I'd bring it up after we all got some rest. That and my plans for expanding my attack on Schnee's virtual resources. Depending upon the success of the hostile script, it might even be a good idea for me to study up on leveraging my presence in the CCT as a whole. The Cross Continental Transmit system was Remnant's version of the internet. All the world's information in one spot and it might just be ripe for the picking.

I could certainly see myself needing it, now, if team RWEBY were to survive as criminals.

It would be a relatively simple thing for me to design a program that fronted as a set of security protocols while at the same time channeling information back to me. People who were worried about having their Scrolls and terminals compromised would flock in droves to someone who offered safeguards against it… In fact, if I had a simple set of rules in place and available on Beacon's Quill Library when the Schnee attack hit…

Yes, panic would draw people to me in droves and Remnant was immature enough with regard to software that very few would likely notice what my security protocols were doing. Unless they watched every single outgoing connection that their Scroll initiated they would be none the wiser… and I could even route the feed through the Quill Store itself. Nothing wrong with a Scroll checking for updates, right?

Yeah, a coded language and a start on a new age of security protocols sounded like perfect activities to which I could devote my time.

Information was power, after all, and power was something I was going to need in short order.

Taking down Schnee Dust Company demanded nothing less.

"Ah," Qrow hummed. "I was gonna take first watch for you-"

"_AHHH!"_

"Shit," the man spat, his eyes widening and his hand darting toward his blade. "Stay here!"

With that, he hurtled across the entire length of the building in one single leap, landed on a rickety wall and promptly vaulted over its edge and out of our sight. The barren trees and morning fog swallowed him up quickly.

"Mario, go," Ruby barked, lunging across the room behind her uncle. "Weiss, stay-"

My hand snapped out and grabbed the back of her dress as she tried to jump over me, prompting the girl to release a surprised grunt as she found herself solidly planted on the ground. That done, I returned my attention to Yang's leg. Quickly, both of my hands were placed over the wound and I wasted no time in summoning up my purple Aura.

Blood Aura? I needed a new name for it.

"Enten," Ruby blurted out, pushing herself back up to feet. "We need-"

"She's fine. Just a distraction. Stay quiet for a second so I can get this shit out of Yang."

The girl's mouth moved without a sound and her eyes darted between her sister and I. Her fingers clutched at the edge of her dress even as she allowed her knees to give out beneath her. She impacted the floor with a huff, her pupils now wide - a feat considering how very large Ruby's gray eyes were normally.

"Blake's okay?"

"Yes," I responded, grasping at the burning energy. It fought and lashed out against the containing force, searing my fingertips and burning away my skin. But still, my Aura continued, undaunted. It seeped beneath Yang's skin and snuffed out the energy's protests with an unfeeling efficiency.

It was easier to contain this time, I noted. There was less of it here than there was in Emerald's forehead.

"And you tricked my uncle, why?"

"No time to explain," I grunted, easily finding the extent of the energy's presence amidst Yang's Aura, blisteringly hot as it was.

At least that was working in my favor – where I still found it hard to differentiate between Auras and even blood, now, I could easily sense this volatile energy.

"Yang has the same energy inside of her that Emerald did," Weiss offered quietly, her chin resting atop her knees. She stared through half-open eyes at Yang. "Enten didn't want Qrow hovering while he removed it."

"You can get it out?" Ruby demanded of me even as I shot a surprised glance at Weiss. I thought her out of hearing range, given how quietly I spoke to Blake earlier.

"I can read lips, remember?" The white haired girl allowed the edge of her own lips to pull upward even as the caustic energy lashed out once more. It was desperate, now.

"Enten," Ruby barked. "Can you-"

"Yes," I hissed, finding my efforts to pull the energy from Yang stall all of the sudden. While it was easier to contain the energy, it was harder this time to withdraw it. Like it had a better foothold in the blonde's body than it did in Emerald's.

My jaw clenched and my brow furrowed. I could feel the energy being drawn from the wound; I could even _see _slivers of it within my purple Aura, just above Yang's skin. But that was it – there were only slivers of the energy. Only fragments of power. There was no concentrated ball like with Emerald, it was almost as though it was spreading-

A cold feeling of dread crept up my spine.

It was almost as though the energy was spreading throughout Yang, likely by way of her blood.

'_The poison!'_

A hand landed on my shoulder but left it almost just as quickly. There were voices around me now but I ignored them, focused as I was on my first friend. The very same friend who, as best I could tell, lay dying in front of me.

'_No! No, she can't. She won't!'_

The volatile energy I managed to draw out thus far – _green _in color this time – was released without hesitation. It exploded into the air above Yang and I and promptly transformed into a thick green mist. The surrounding area was immediately cast in a sea of green hues.

I disregarded the spectacle in favor of focusing on Yang's leg. I could feel the energy – hot and explosive against the steady, unyielding reassurance my purple Aura offered me – within the wound itself, sure as day. But… there was something more. Something fainter that I missed before given how I was focused upon the wound itself.

It was a trail.

My hands followed it slowly, carefully. Up, the path went. Beyond the girl's leg and through her torso, through her own heart, even. But it did not stop there-

"Enough," Qrow's voice barked and a hand landed on my shoulder. It pulled me away from the blonde; I fell back onto the floor behind me, surprised.

"Uncle Qrow," Ruby gasped, her hands covering her mouth. She was standing now, as was Qrow. Blake was back too and sporting a disgruntled look on her face.

'_Out of time.'_

"I'm not watching him cop a feel on my _niece_ any-"

"He's not! He's trying-"

"There's an energy in her that should not be there," I said as quickly as I could. My eyes glanced back at Yang's body. Weiss was just beyond it, in the same position she was when Qrow was first pulled away. The blonde herself was pale and, if I wasn't mistaken, her veins were darker than they were before. They stood out more. "That green mist is-"

"Nothing you need to worry about, kid," Qrow said evenly. His eyes narrowed and his brow furrowed even as he stared at his niece. His mouth was tense and his lips formed that same firm line again. "I know what's going on here… just not _why_."

I glanced toward Yang and released a grunt from my throat. "Then please, share with us your wisdom," I snapped, wide eyed and breathing rather heavily.

The man, in contrast, drew a slow breath in through his nose, still studying his unmoving niece. His fists clenched once and one of his arms made a move toward the inside of the coat that he wore. He stopped it before it got there, though. Instead the limb fell to his side, unmoving.

"Magic," he breathed. "Magic."

I blinked and, for a split second, my brain stopped moving. It stopped observing. It stopped watching Ruby as she clutched at the hem of her dress and Blake as she gripped her folded arms, a frustrated expression prominent on her face. It stopped noticing Weiss as she placidly stared out from behind her knees.

It stopped, for just a split second, and all I could hear was the sound of woodland creatures and my own heartbeat. The weariness in my bones won out over the panic. The dumbfounded awe overpowered my concern for Yang.

'_Magic?' _I thought, at first numb. The hilarity of it all… that the man would even _think _to joke- This was his niece! _'That's his explanation for all this? For the energy in Emerald? The energy in Yang? __**Magic?**__'_

Aura _was _magic, as far as I was concerned. I knew the people of Remnant thought differently but I grew up on Earth in my first life, where a four story drop was lethal and getting hit with a bullet was fatal.

But here? On Remnant? A four story drop may as well have been a four _foot _drop to one with Aura. And a bullet could only hope to even touch the skin if it were in a similar caliber as Ruby's Crescent Rose. Those things were _child's play _to huntresses and hunters. They were fodder for jokes! A bruise from a bullet, _a bruise_, was laughed off as a slip up!

Magic.

"Magic's not real," Ruby protested, exhaling loudly through her nose. "That's just… It's in the stories! Like the Four Sisters and the Wise Hermit! It's not… It's just a dream…"

Qrow shook his head, his eyes still locked onto Yang's body. "Not quite, kiddo. There're a lot of things you don't know about Remnant. Magic… Well, magic is one of them."

A growl escaped my throat of its own accord even as Blake scoffed, tossing her head to the side in a gesture that clearly expressed just how unimpressed she was with the man's explanation. Our emotions, already strung out by the past twenty-four hours, were only a breath away from snapping completely. Weiss, on the other hand, remained silent and expressionless.

"Magic?" I muttered, eyeing Yang as I did so. She was still breathing – that was the only thing keeping me from continuing my attempts to draw the energy – not magic - out of her. "As in that mystical energy that _somehow _fixes every single problem on the planet? The stuff that ignores all facets of logic and shirks off the laws of the universe as we know them?! That same entity that _children _dream of? Right! Of course! What else could it be but _magic_?! …At least I have something to call that energy now, I suppose. Though I believe 'whimsical-rainbow-energy-of-childish-hallucinations' would be more accurate myself!"

Qrow's eyes snapped to me, regarding me silently for a brief moment. "What do you know about it, kid?"

"Your _magic, _you mean_? _I know it burns. I know it's volatile and does not want to be contained. I know that, despite all of its efforts, I _can _beat it into submission… Not so very magical of it, yeah? If simple _Aura _can best it? And I also know that Emerald – and whomever she works for – has it in their disposal too."

Because Emerald's whimsical-rainbow-energy-of-childish-hallucinations – hereby known as _wrech_ -was contained in a neat little ball in her forehead. If it were really given to her by way of a Grimm wounding her, as she told me it was, then it would bear the same characteristics as the _wrech_ inside Yang. It would have been less concentrated around the wounded area. It would have traveled through the blood. It would have been harder to extract.

But it wasn't. It bore absolutely _no _similarities to all the whimsically magically hallucination juice that wasinside Yang.

Emerald's _wrech_ was contained in a single, focused point. Almost like it was placed there on purpose… And if that was true then that meant she lied to me. That indicated that she didn't, in fact, receive the power from a wound inflicted by a Beowulf. In fact, I would guess that she was a willing participant in receiving the energy, given how neatly compressed it was.

A scowl grew on my face even as my eyes roved up and down Yang's body, searching for any sign of discomfort. They found none and so, I held myself back.

'_Magic,' _I thought as a scoff escaped my throat. _'The arrogance…'_

Qrow clearly knew something about the awesome-dream-power afflicting my teammate and wasn't worried in the slightest about it. Fine. I could give him the benefit of the doubt despite the fact that he tried to pass off the energy as something that was an affront to every logical process on the planet, especially considering Yang's wound was no longer bleeding and the fact that she was still drawing breath.

She would be fine.

A relieved sigh escaped me even as my mind turned to my next concern.

'_So, Emerald lied to me.'_

She lied to me about the _wrech _in her forehead. Why? It was likely that she wanted to keep how she received it a secret and that fact indicated that the act of receiving said whimsical-rainbow-power was something that would at the very least make me suspicious of her.

On the other hand, she could have just been instructed by Ironwood to hide how she got the power…

But no! Ignoring the fact that Ozpin trusted Ironwood implicitly, the fact that Emerald specifically sought me out at the Schnee Ball led me to believe she needed something from me that night. She needed information, perhaps on whether or not I could control and contain _wrech_.

That information was something Ironwood could have easily asked of Ozpin. Subterfuge was unnecessary. Further, Ironwood, in those few moments I'd observed him, seemed an honorable sort. He held himself proudly – his shoulders were always rigid and his spine straight. His chin was held high. He was proud of himself, of what he did.

A proud man. One I thought would not sink to deception to get what he wanted and certainly not at Ozpin's expense.

No, Emerald's lie was born of a need to hide how she got the energy… from both me and Ironwood.

'_They were captured together,' _I realized. _'Emerald, Mercury and Neo. That's a similarity…'_

Before, I thought that Ironwood released Emerald and Mercury because they were working for him and kept Neo because she was working with Torchwick. That idea, however, had just been thrown out the window. No, he released those two because he _thought _they were working for him.

'_Mercury's visit in the hospital wing.'_

He'd connected himself to Torchwick and, by extension, Neo, then. He and Emerald were released from the airship but… but Neo remained. Unless there was some unseen motive I was missing, Ironwood should have been tricked into releasing all three of them.

But Neo remained the man's captive. She was still held on Ironwood's flagship, the largest airship in his fleet. She was still there and Emerald and Mercury were not…

'_Why do they want Neo on that ship? And, further, what interest do they have in this… in Qrow's __**magic**__?'_

Questions, questions and more questions. Unfortunately, I had precious few answers for those questions.

"See," Qrow muttered, returning my attention to him and the situation at hand. "She's calming. No danger here. No harmful magic… not since you stopped her from bleeding out."

"So glad to hear all that _wrech _didn't kill her. Wouldn't want it to do anything _bad_, would we? That'd just be absolutely horrid for its reputation."

"Now you sound like Weiss," Ruby snorted, elbowing me in the side.

The heiress herself harrumphed and turned up her nose at us as best she could from her spot on the floor. "Please refrain from comparing me to that lumbering oaf."

"Right," Qrow muttered, a scowl on his face now. "On that note, I'm off. I'll be back soon with the essentials. Don't do anything stupid and you," he said, pointing to me. "Don't know what your problem is with magic, but it's not hurting Yang so-"

"Don't worry, not going to do any witch burnings here," I retorted, my eyes wide and my eyebrows arched. I turned then to Weiss. "Was that falsely sincere enough to meet your expectations, Majesty?"

The edge of her lips curled upward ever so slightly. "Quite."

The elder man growled and rubbed at his eyes. His hand – which had been twitching ever since I started speaking – delved into his coat and retrieved a flask. He ignored Ruby's groan and took a long draw from whatever was inside.

"Right," he said, smacking his lips and tucking the flask back inside his coat. "I've had just about enough of you lot. Kids… ugh. Just stay here."

And with that, he turned and jumped out of the empty doorway. The mist that had settled over the ruined village quickly swallowed him up and the sound of his footsteps faded almost immediately, replaced instead by the groaning of the barren trees nearby and the sounds of the animals that called the surrounding swamp home.

* * *

**A/N: **So, honestly, how many of you expected the 'I can't continue this story A/N chapter' when you clicked on the link?

But fear not! For I am not, as has been speculated, dead! As a matter of fact, I consider myself very much alive!

Now, some of you may be asking why the wait for this chapter was so long. That's a fair question and my answer will be a little long winded so I'll get it out of the way here before I get to the actual author's note.

When I started on this fic, I had a nice little backlog of chapters that I'd already written. On the day I was set to release one, I would proof it, edit it a little, and post it up without any trouble. That was back when I updated on a weekly basis.

Then, my muse decided to stop showing up for work (lazy bastard) and my desire to write fell off quite a bit. I could no longer sit down and write for five to six hours at a time without becoming distracted by something I wanted to do more and I began to find my weekly update schedule quite a hassle to meet, so I switched it up and started to post every two weeks.

Now, in present day, I've realized that I can't keep up with my bi-weekly schedule either. I was honestly killing myself to meet the deadlines and I think my writing suffered for it – I loathed the idea of what I saw as letting you lot down though so I trudged on.

Not exactly logical of me, I know, but I can't understate how much your support and your opinions mean to me. And damnit all if emotion doesn't make you act irrationally from time to time.

But I'm getting off topic, back to the present day: I've decided to do away with the update schedule entirely. I'll write this fic when I feel up to it, when I have the enthusiasm for it and know that I can write at my best. Will this mean I'll update more slowly? Perhaps… might be that two chapters will be a month apart while at other times, they'll be a week apart. This is more for my sanity than anything and I hope you guys understand.

Now, that said, we'll get to the **real A/N** for the chapter:

Don't worry, we'll see just why Enten loathes the thought of magic soon… it's not a spur of the moment thing! Trust me! I imagine we'll also be exploring the ruins more in the coming chapters as well… I have a lot planned for Liar's Landing! Backstory has already been written and the characters have already been developed… our heroes will just have to find them now!

Let me know what you think, how you feel about Qrow's characterization and Yang's… interesting wound…

Till next time.

-Phailen


	39. Chapter 39

_12 hours later – Mistral Swamplands – Ruins of Mistral Trade Route City – Week 18, The Vytal Festival begins in 15 days_

I was of the opinion that only in times of great suffering, of monumental strife, could a person's true measure be taken. Times when all the comforts of life were taken away, when all the things a person took for granted were removed – then and only then would their true self be revealed. The depths to which they would sink and the heights to which they would ascend were laid bare. One's determination would be tested and their strength of character, tried.

In a word: survival.

Being made to survive pushed people to their absolute limits. When their walls were removed and their safe lives forfeited. When they lost their peace of mind and became aware of just how _fragile, _how _insignificant _their lives were… That moment when they realized they were _mortal_.

Survival.

A scowl pulled at my lips even as I finished my search of the abandoned home's refrigerator. The door slammed shut perhaps a little harder than I intended in my frustration at yet another fruitless search and I turned then to glance about the ruins of what was once a kitchen with a critical eye.

A wooden table lay broken and shattered on the tiled floor and the scratches its surface bore spoke of a struggle. There were five of them – wide, deep and in a line. The leg of a chair was discarded nearby, one end soaked through with something that turned it darker than the other. Dark enough that the wood was almost black in color; blood had been spilt here.

Grimm don't bleed. Grimm don't use chair legs as improvised weaponry.

I stepped over the debris with a low hum, my fingers brushing against the torn, flowery wallpaper and the partially collapsed wall behind it. A thought occurred to me then and I took a moment to study the edge of the table in closer detail – sure enough, it was scuffed and marked with a spider web of cracks. Someone had _thrown _that table, I realized; not only that but someone threw it hard.

Another hum, more speculative and partially an exhale, escaped me this time. Perhaps Aura was involved? The strength required to throw a heavy wooden table alone was immense but to throw it hard enough to collapse a wall? Strength born of desperation, maybe?

I cleared my head with a grunt and exited the kitchen/dining room. The tiled floor turned wooden and immediately began creaking in protest as I walked over it, back out into the living room.

Here too, I could see signs. They were small and inconspicuous, most of them, but I was trained at Beacon to recognize them. I was taught how to reconstruct a battle field, how to see what the mundane eye could not. To a looter, this might just be another ruined living room, picked clean and therefore worthless.

But to me?

To me, it was a storybook.

And it only lacked a reader.

One end of the lone couch in the room was moved away from the wall and the wooden floor beneath it bore the faintest of scratch marks because of that. Someone, or something, had pushed the furniture about in a hurry.

A television screen, flat and undoubtedly sleek-looking in its prime, lay face down on the floor in the center of the room. It was chipped and cracked on one corner and to the untrained eye it might look like damage wrought from an unlucky fall off of its stand.

But that crack was far too large – it reached nearly down the entire length of one side – to be from an accident.

'_The chair leg. The screen. The couch. Even the walls,' _I observed, my fingers curling around the steak knife I'd found in the last house I searched. _'A fight. An old one, and a Grimm was not involved.'_

Scavengers, perhaps. Maybe looters, but that would only be the case if the fight occurred shortly after the Grimm broke through the city's walls. I had no way of knowing and, frankly, no urge to find out, either. Whatever happened here failed to interest me enough to warrant anything more than a cursory examination.

'_Survival,' _I thought as I stepped back out into the ruins of Mistral Trade Route City proper. The sun was beginning to set, silhouetting the dilapidated skyscrapers toward the center of the city in an eerie façade of what was once a bustling center of commerce. _'I wonder if those people knew they were going to fight another person, or if they were only just starting to discover what it would take to live in their new world?'_

The Mistral Trade Route City's fall was all over the news when it occurred some six years ago. Video feeds of the tragedy were streamed all across Remnant. People gathered in front of storefronts to watch, bars were filled to the point that only standing room was left. Everyone watched it happen. Everyone saw the horror unfold before their very eyes – for the first few hours, at least, then the city as a whole started going dark.

'_Going dark.' _

That was what the news called it. They said Mistral Trade Route City 'had gone dark' so that they could avoid stating the real truth: the city and its inhabitants were being killed. If not by the Grimm, then by each other. By opportunists.

By _survivors_.

And it was all because Mistral wanted a faster sea route to Vale. The inland lake upon which its capital city was placed could get them half way there, but they needed a canal dug to connect said lake to the ocean itself. Until that passage was operational, they would have to go through the Mistral Trade Route – a natural river that flowed through this very city named after the very same trade route - to get to the ocean, an inconvenience that added days to their travel time.

Unacceptable, they said. We can do better, they said.

And better they did.

The canal was made and suddenly Mistral had another city to defend, another location that needed protecting. Pulling guards from the capital itself was out: it was just as populous and just as important as it was before the canal was finished. An ocean bordered it on one side and the inland lake on the other… no, far too important. Far too valuable. Nothing had changed there.

Mistral Trade Route City, though… it was dealt a serious blow by the canal and it immediately started to lose business because of it. Less people traveled along its river. Less visitors came to its shores and the money vanished alongside them.

Guards were taken from its walls, little by little, and as the newly established Canal Town grew. Little by little, they left. One by one, they vanished. Eventually, groups of guards were reassigned en mass. Fewer and fewer peacekeepers remained behind to keep just that: peace and quiet in the city. Eventually, there wasn't enough of a presence left to fend off the Grimm's advances.

'_Wonder if they knew they were dooming a city when they built that canal?'_

The city's fall was an even bigger catastrophe than Vale's loss of Mountain Glen – its own attempt at a second city. Mistral Trade Route City was well established and generally stood as an example to the other three nations that second cities were indeed attainable. It was larger than Mountain Glen, more populous than Mountain Glen and older than Mountain Glen.

All factors, of course, which led to its fall having the dubious honor of being the single largest loss of life since the end of the war between the four nations several decades past.

"Survival," I muttered, casting a glance around the rooftops nearby. I could not see my team but I could certainly hear Yang swearing at something. The girl was still shaky on her injured leg but apparently that did nothing to dampen her temper. "I wonder how it'll affect us?"

Them, rather. I knew the stakes, I knew the odds. I knew the chances of surviving on Remnant were low since I was a toddler and it shaped almost every decision I'd ever made because of it. Earth offered me the perspective I needed in that regard. And it was because of that perspective – the knowledge that I was in a _dangerous _place – that I learned I was a little more cold-hearted than I wanted to be; I learned that difficult decisions were needed and that not everyone got to live happily ever after.

No, the girls had already seen my true character when I manipulated Cardin into bullying Jaune. And once more when they took part in my – our – plan to take down Coco Adel. They were more open to getting their hands dirty now. More receptive. Ruby no longer flinched when I mentioned something she considered un-heroic. Yang was willing to turn a blind eye to certain deeds so long as they benefitted team RWEBY.

It was good, I thought. Our lives probably weren't going to be glamorous from here on out.

A Beowolf's howl erupted suddenly nearby – too far away to be attacking me but close enough to warn me of the potential danger. It was an unexpected and jarring interruption to the otherwise peaceful background noise in the ruins. The birds in the scraggly trees fled. The animals scampered away to hide in the carcasses of homes. Only silence and Yang's occasional outburst remained.

Then, a muted thud sounded from behind me and I whirled around- Only to find naught but the empty doorway I'd just exited.

A frown pulled at my lips.

"Hey," Blake's voice called from above me and I jumped, only belatedly looking to the roof of the house, where the girl was perched. She had an amused smile on her face.

"Find anything?" The girl continued, jumping down to me just as I arched an unimpressed eyebrow.

She landed with a soft thump beside me, the usual staccato _clack _of her heels replaced by the more muted _thud _of the boots Qrow had scrounged up for her. A pair of just-too-big jeans were secured by a belt around her waist and an equally large, white undershirt hung loosely about her shoulders.

I was clothed in the exact same manner, though the jeans and the undershirt actually fit me. Most likely, our clothes came from the same unknown benefactor.

"Nothin' much," I muttered, offering her the knife, handle-first. "It's been years since the walls fell. This place has been picked clean… we'll have to get to the center of the city if we want to find anything useful."

Liar's Landing was there, after all. The river that ran through the ruins was there. People were there. All of them gathered somewhere within the towering skyscrapers in the distance. With people came the possibility of being found but so too did civilization offer survival.

A necessary risk.

Blake hummed as she accepted the knife. The girl promptly turned it over in her hands and a scowl immediately pulled her lips downward.

"We've been spoiled, huh?" I asked, tracking her eyes to the blade. It was dull, but not pitted. It would have to do.

The girl nodded. "Even in the White Fang, it was better than this."

"More sympathizers."

"More strength," she amended, turning to stalk down the empty street. I followed after her. "The White Fang had numbers – and sympathizers," she allowed, nodding over her shoulder at me. "But the numbers were the important part. More people to gather resources. More power to be had… It made life easier."

"We may not have an army, but we do have each other," I noted, casting a glance over one house in particular whose frontal brick wall was in shambles. It looked like it had been utterly devastated by something _big_.

The girl grunted and tossed her head, the black hair that had been falling over her eyes instead fell behind her shoulder. Her feline ears twitched and one of them swiveled back in my direction. "We're not exactly combat ready. The White Fang was-is…"

"Retrieving our weapons is our first priority," I agreed when she trailed off. With a hand, I gestured toward the roof of a nearby house. I could hear Yang on the other side of it. "Now that we're well rested, fed and watered, we can think about our next steps. Getting to Mistral City proper, for example. We can find a way to Vale – and Beacon – from there."

"Sure, and our next meal too," the girl said, her lips twitching upward.

I grunted and pushed myself off the ground with a blast of Aura, easily and precisely coming to a stop on the rotten wood of the single-story building's roof.

It felt unspeakably _good _to have my Aura back at full strength again. To be well rested. To have food in my stomach and water to parch my thirst. Finally, team RWEBY's luck was looking up.

And it was all thanks to a lay about, selfish drunkard. I was convinced Qrow had only sought us out and helped us because his nieces were on the team; but I didn't really have any room to complain about the man's motives.

We both looked after only those who were important to us. I could respect that kind of pragmatism.

Indeed, despite the doubts I had regarding Qrow's explanation of _wrech _and how _perfectly _harmless it was and the unease I felt at having to rely upon a man that put away alcohol like I did water, he'd come through for team RWEBY when we needed him most. Not thirty minutes after he first disappeared did he return, arms full of salted meats, breads, water, clothing and even a little cheese.

A burst of wry amusement tugged my lips upward – those foods were luxuries to us now.

Given how long it'd been since the girls and I last ate – the meal I made Ruby take back to the dorm room as an olive branch, in fact – we devoured what he brought back and proceeded to sleep away the next ten hours of the day without hesitation.

And now? Now, we had to do it all over again.

And this time we were without Qrow. The man said he had urgent business here and none of us were really in a spot to complain. He was gone by the time we woke, a note addressed to Yang and Ruby serving as the only proof he was ever there at all. I didn't know what it said and the sisters hadn't felt it necessary to share.

"Next meal," I agreed, carefully picking my way across the rooftop. Yang's voice, definitely angry and very loud, grew closer. "Long term shelter. SDC's downfall too. Plenty of goals… let's focus on staying alive and defending ourselves first."

Blake hummed, her ears twitching. The girl drew in a deep breath. "She's still mad."

"We told her to sit still. We told _Yang Xiao Long _to sit still and wait. What'd you expect?"

"This," the girl said, snorting. "But I'd hoped…"

"That Yang wouldn't mind staying behind while we did something?" I asked, coming to a stop on the opposite edge of the roof. It looked over an empty lot that probably held another home at some point in the past, if the empty foundations in the ground were any indicator. But there were no walls left, now, so the street beyond the ruined building lay in clear view, just as empty as the other dirt roads I'd seen in the ruins of the city.

Blake sighed but did not answer, instead allowing herself to drop to the ground, where the rest of team RWEBY waited. I swallowed, once, then joined her.

"I'm not just gonna sit here!" Yang was saying, bearing down upon Weiss, her hair already simmering. "We need to take the fight to that asshole! Show him that he can't just toss us aside like trash!"

"No one is disagreeing with you," the girl answered, neutral in the face of the blonde's anger.

Yang, clad in a pair of dark shorts that hung to the middle of her thighs and a garishly orange tee-shirt, did not turn to acknowledge us as we landed, focused as she was on our white-haired teammate. Her posture spoke of her anger, loud and clear. There was no effort to hide the tense shoulders or the clenched fingers; her fists hung at her waist, near the white bandage wrapped about her injured leg, one she avoided putting too much of her weight upon. Her feet were protected by a worn pair of tennis shoes, the least durable and most sensible of the lot Qrow brought back, given the blonde wasn't about to get into any scuffles with her injury.

The target of the second tallest member of RWEBY was Weiss Schnee, recently… _released _member of the Schnee family.

Presumably she was just Weiss, now. Not Weiss Schnee.

At any rate, the girl wore a dull green skirt that reached down to her knees – something she fought rather vehemently with Ruby over – and a white blouse that wasn't quite as shockingly bright as her hair. Her feet, like both mine and Blake's, were covered by brown boots. Her public face was on full display, I noted next. Not one spasm of her lips, one fidget of her limbs or one twitch of her eye could be noted. Other than the nod she offered myself and Blake, she appeared completely unmoved and unaffected by Yang's rage.

The last member of our team, our leader herself, sat on an over-turned crate behind me, closer to the foundations in the ground. Ruby Rose had her arms folded across her chest and an unimpressed eyebrow – just the one, because she knew how to do that now and never hesitated in showing off the skill – accompanied her scowl. The girl's expression lightened when the last two members of her team reappeared, though, and she offered me a smile when I glanced back at her. It was a gesture that I returned. Baggy, black pants covered her legs and a red, hooded sweatshirt that completely encased her torso - it was at least two sizes too big for her – covered her body. On her feet were a pair of running shoes that were only slightly more intact than the ones on Yang's feet.

"I know," Yang snapped, returning my attention to her. "I know you're not disagreeing! I just- I… Ugh! I _hate _this!"

The girl hobbled over to the wall behind Weiss – one that belonged to the building Blake and I were just on - and threw herself down on the ground. Belatedly, I realized her cheekbones sported the unmistakable sheen of sweat.

I leveled an unimpressed stare at the blonde even as a sigh escaped me but the girl ignored me, content to sulk as she was. It was what I'd come to expect of her, after Qrow explained his _magic _and the girl was told she'd need to take it easy for a few days.

Honestly. The story of the four maidens – women who lured a crotchety old hermit out of his secluded cabin and taught him how to live his life, receiving untold power in return – was a farfetched child's tale. It was not the truth that Qrow seemed to believe it to be. The power that the women inherited did not, _could not, _up and decide to switch hosts upon the current one's death and even if it _did_, then it was not possible that there was no rhyme or reason in how it sought out a new host.

'_Insanity. Utterly and completely fucking insane.'_

And even if, by some outlandish chance, that entire fairy tale_ was _true, then that power the four women received was not magic. It could not be magic. It was not some kind of whimsical, fairy-tale-esque energy that made all the bad things in the world go away. That was impossible. That spat in the face of logic and stomped on rationality.

Everything could be explained. Everything occurred for a reason. Everything had a way by which it worked. A method to its madness.

This… _magic_ would be included, whether it – and the people who believed in it – liked it or not.

Because eventually, _magic _stopped being _magic _as soon as it decided to interact with the mundane world. And in that mundane world, rationality and reason ruled.

This _magic _would be brought to heel, just like everything else on Remnant, by logic. By reason. Science was not a democracy, after all. It did not care what people thought or what the current popular opinion deemed acceptable.

The only thing that needed to be gained was understanding, for with understanding magic ceased to be magic and instead became power. Explainable power. Power bound by the rules we all lived under.

"Blake, Enten," Ruby called, pushing herself off of her crate and pacing toward us. She wrapped her arms first about my waist and then, Blake's. Once that was done, she stepped back and observed us with a shrewd eye. She nodded, once, and put her hands on her hips once she was satisfied neither of us was hurt. "Did you guys find something?"

The cat faunus and I shared a glance and I offered the girl a nod. She stepped forward and held up the steak knife she carried for inspection.

"Most houses were picked clean," I explained when Blake remained silent. "Supermarkets too, for that matter. Nothing left for us here."

"Ugh," Ruby grunted, her lips pulled back in a disgruntled sneer. "Is it too much to ask for people to just _leave _stuff? I would have left something for the next guy…"

The edge of my lips quirked upward involuntarily. "Not everyone is as…"

"Thoughtful?" Weiss asked.

"Sensitive," Blake suggested.

"Not everyone has your golden heart, Ruby," Yang murmured from her spot on the ground.

"It speaks," I snarked, an overly astonished expression plastered across my face as I turned toward the blonde. "Does it wish to stand too?"

A grin appeared on the girl's face despite her visible effort to fight the expression. "Oh, Enten," she muttered, a low, rumbling chuckle escaping her throat. "One of these days I'm gonna kick your ass so hard your dad'll feel it in the afterlife."

I heard Ruby suck in a sharp breath behind me and Weiss' eyes widened ever so slightly. Even Blake seemed wary of my reaction, given the way she stiffened.

'_Honestly,' _I thought, unimpressed. Did they think me a child? Did they truly expect me to be so immature? I might've taken offense to a remark like that had Cardin Winchester uttered it, certainly if Pyrrha Nikos dared suggest that. But Yang?

"Yeah, just as soon as you find your mother, blondie," I riposted, kneeling down in front of her. "Feh, 'sides, you're too busy gettin' your butt whooped by a garden snake to think of going after me."

"Same garden that snake tail slapped you into the next century?" she asked even as I planted my hand on her forehead. "That one? Memory's a little shakey…"

"One in the same," I murmured. Through my hand, I could feel the _wrech _in her forehead. It was the same pulsating, angry, hot energy that was present in Emerald. As best I could feel, it hadn't changed or grown since I last studied it. Good. "Maybe you should get your head looked at. If you can't remember that snake then you might even start thinking you're better than I am at… well, life."

She scoffed and her eyebrows arched upward, vanishing underneath my hand. "Last I checked I was up 162-58."

"Switch those numbers around and I might just agree with you," I muttered, rising to my feet after I removed my hand from her forehead. Instead, I offered it to the blonde in front of me.

She grinned, accepting the gesture and coming to stand in front of me.

Ruby breathed in deeply, watching us for a moment with a smile on her face, before she turned toward the city in the distance. The sun was completely obscured by the skyscrapers now, only through the holes dotting the empty structures did light seep through and illuminate the area around us.

Night was coming, and fast.

"Alllllllllllllright," the shorter girl cheered, her blackish-reddish hair bouncing as she did. "First stop: all those big buildings. Then: Beacon!"

"I'm quite certain you're missing a step… or three," Weiss murmured.

The girl scoffed. "Nobody has time for steps," she grinned, starting down the road opposite the empty foundations. "That's what we have Enten for!"

"It'll be dark before we get there," Blake pointed out over the incredulous grunt that escaped me. "We should stick to the buildings. No open spaces."

"Right," Ruby hummed. "Blake leads, 'cause she's used to being a criminal. Then Weiss and Yang in the middle, 'cause they're hurt. Then Enten and I in the rear." Her lips quirked suddenly and she grunted. "Rear…"

A wry grin grew on my face and I found myself pleased and unimpressed in equal parts that Ruby managed to retain her childish sense of humor throughout the upheavals of the past few days. But then again, this was probably just the start of a heroic adventure in her mind. An innocent team gets blamed for a crime. They work their way back into the good graces of the public and end up saving the world in the process.

Indeed, team RWEBY's situation sounded just like the start of a fairy tale. Just like one of the stories that the younger girl undoubtedly had Yang read her when she was smaller.

A small smile grew on my lips, melancholic in nature, as the five of us began trekking toward the center of the city. With Qrow off doing who-knew-what and team RWEBY left to fend for ourselves, I found it rather unlikely that the girl's fantasies would hold up in the coming days.

Best let her have what little time she could now.

* * *

_Six hours later – Mistral Swamplands – Ruins of Mistral Trade Route City – Week 18, The Vytal Festival begins in 15 days_

I woke with a start, blinking several times in an effort to shed the sluggishness left behind by my sleeping mind. Cognizance returned to me slowly, as did my vision, but nevertheless they did return.

A hand on my shoulder, small and delicate in nature – thin fingered but possessing a grip of steel.

'_Blake.'_

She was not shaking me urgently so I blinked one last time and took in the crumbling, stone ceiling above me. In the dark of the night it was difficult to see but even so, I managed to make out several cracks running across its surface. It, like the rest of the buildings in the center of Mistral Trade Route City, had fallen into disrepair. Their formerly strong foundations and walls were cracked and pitted, ravaged as they were by the Grimm that roamed the city and the scavengers who endeavored to avoid them.

"You gonna lie there and stare or are you gonna take your watch," Blake murmured somewhere behind me.

"Do I have a choice," I returned, equally quietly, a resigned sigh escaping me despite my best efforts. I didn't have a blanket or even a bed but I was warm and comfortable all the same.

"No."

"Then I guess I'll take my watch."

I sat up and rubbed at my eyes, casting a glance about team RWEBY's makeshift camp site as I did so. We ended up finding a relatively stable looking floor about five stories up in one of the skyscrapers that dotted the center of the city. Weiss and Ruby were sent to hunt down our meal and returned with two rabbits between them – something that our leader clearly hadn't been pleased with.

All the same, she nibbled on the meat when her stomach started growling.

We had a fire as well, of course, lest we be forced to eat our prey raw. Blake was sent to gather wood from the barren trees that surrounded the city's outskirts while Yang and I created a passable fire pit from the debris of the building around us – it looked like it was an office building once upon a time. The remains of wooden desks and chairs provided us fuel for our fire even as the buildings fluorescent lighting hung in shambles overhead.

I heard Blake shuffle back toward the outer wall of the structure – we'd made camp near the center of it within the remains of some cubicles, a seven story, open-air lobby at our backs – and took a moment to check on the other three members of my team.

Weiss, Ruby and Yang. I found them easily, arrayed around the darkened fire pit as they were. They were all asleep, all breathing quietly. Ruby had even found her way into Yang's arms at some point throughout the night.

A satisfied nod accompanied me as I rose to my feet. Briefly, I tried to observe the rest of the floor we were on but found the building far too dark with the loss of sunlight to see anything but shadows. And that was to say nothing of the open-air lobby we were overlooking. It was disconcerting but Blake was at ease and she had her night vision; nothing was there.

"Enten," the faunus herself hissed. "Come here."

I turned and found the girl kneeling next to a large hole in the outer wall, peering out of it; part of her head was illuminated by the soft light of Remnant's shattered moon but the rest of her body was encased in the shadows of the building.

"Across the street," she whispered once I joined her. "Eighth story. Do you see it?"

A frown came over my face and my eyes narrowed but I focused in on the skyscraper across the street nonetheless. I found the same crumbling façade that most of the buildings in the area sported. Broken windows. Empty doorways. There was even part of what looked to once be a florescent sign hanging over the first floor – it said 'Magen' but the rest of the letters were no where to be found.

Unfortunately, I could scarcely see a foot into the building's confines.

"No," I muttered. "The moonlight only illuminates the buildings enough for me to see the outsides of them."

Blake hummed, clearly displeased. She licked her lips, then: "There's a Grimm there."

My eyebrows arched but the faunus' face remained neutral. She did not share my surprise at the fact a Grimm was, presumably, watching us but not attacking.

"This… isn't new to you," I ventured slowly, uneasily. The idea that a Grimm was content to sit and observe…

"It's been there since shortly after you guys went to sleep."

I sucked in a sharp breath and earned some babbled words from Ruby because of it.

"And it hasn't… It's just been there? Nothing?"

The girl's eyes darted back outside and her feline ears laid themselves flat against her skull. "It's been watching," she hissed, her eyes narrowed. "It hasn't moved. It hasn't made a sound. Its attention hasn't left us. Not once."

I turned again to the building she was eying but still found myself frustratingly blind. Twice, I scanned the eighth floor of the empty, dilapidated structure and twice I came up with nothing for my efforts. I only saw shattered window panes, empty holes in the stone walls and shadows that stretched into the darkness of the building itself. I couldn't even find its eyes.

A hum escaped my lips then. "Are its eyes glowing? Red, like the other Grimm?"

"Yes," she whispered even as one of our teammates sighed behind us, evidently stirred into near-wakefulness by the conversation. The girl continued, quieter: "But it conceals them behind the plates on its head… It's surprisingly clever at hiding itself."

"I can't even see the plates," I mumbled. A Grimm's armor was white, white and starkly easy to see in darkness.

"It's maybe fifteen feet beyond the walls. A Beowolf. A big one."

"Out of range of your shadow?"

"In a direct line?" She hesitated. "Probably not. But I have to get it five stories down and then eight stories up… that's farther than I've tried to go before. Plus with you guys asleep-"

"You'd have no backup in case something went sideways," I finished for her, my lips forming a neutral line. "And with a Grimm this odd… Well, wouldn't want to take any chances."

I got to my feet and stepped fully into the hole in the wall, allowing the moonlight to illuminate me completely. Slowly, I channeled Aura into my right hand. The energy gathered quickly and obediently; the hair on my forearm stood on end and a grin developed on my face.

Blake glanced back at me, eying my face first and then my fist. "Are we-? No. Scaring it off?"

I nodded and the girl glanced back to the empty façade where the Grimm hid. My Aura continued pouring into my limb until it became too much for my arm to store. Immediately, a dull blue glow erupted from-

"It moved," Blake hissed. "It- I can't…"

The girl leaned forward, her head twitching from side to side, up and down, as she tried to spot the Beowolf again. I could see nothing but shadows, same as always. Nothing looked out of place. No sound disturbed the calm of the night. The building remained as frustratingly harmless as ever.

The faunus growled and, with a huff, whirled around toward our makeshift campsite.

I let her go without comment, anxiously chewing on my lip as I released the hold on my Aura. With it, the dull blue glow about me faded.

'_Since when do the Grimm just… watch?'_

* * *

_Three hours later – Mistral Swamplands – Ruins of Mistral Trade Route City – Week 18, The Vytal Festival begins in 15 days_

A light, small and flicking and orange in color, shook me from my doze. Immediately, I drew in a deep breath and wiped at my face to rid it – and myself – of the weariness that spending hours on an uneventful watch left in me. My legs protested the sudden movement but I forced myself fully to my feet all the same and cast my eyes about the dystopian ruins below me.

The light, I found, was still there.

It was very, very easy to find in the pre-dawn twilight enshrouding the ruins. A small flame, perhaps from a simple lighter. It hovered a scant few feet above the ground for a brief moment longer before it flickered out. At most, it was a block away from the base of our building – near the skyscraper Blake claimed to see the Beowolf within.

My eyes narrowed and I leaned ever-so-slightly out of my hidey-hole in the ruins team RWEBY was using as a campsite. There was no sign of said watcher-Grimm, thankfully, but I was unable to find the source of the light as well. It was gone, its owner likely too nervous to keep it active for more than a few seconds at a time in the darkness.

A grunt escaped me and I cast a glance back toward my team. They were all still arrayed about the blackened remains of our fire pit. All, as best I could tell, sleeping soundly.

My head swiveled once more toward the ruins, a grim smile on my face.

Hagel Schnee's plot against my team awoke something within me. Something powerful. Something primal in its nature. Something that roared in defiance and howled in anger when it saw Weiss bawling in that airship. Something that caused my jaw to tighten and my fists to clench when I thought of Yang pacing up and down that metal walkway.

The man gave me something that I would make certain he regretted.

Motivation. Incitement. A drive.

He gave me a reason to go on the offensive. An excuse to _attack_.

The shadows were still my refuge. Acting through proxies and engaging in misdirection was still my preferred method of getting my way. But now? If I needed to dirty my own hands a little, so be it.

It was long past time I entered the fray myself.

A low, grumbling hum of approval escaped me and I found myself content despite the situation I and my team founds ourselves in. I had a purpose now. A clearly defined goal that was more easily defined than 'make team RWEBY stronger'.

I was going to take down Hagel Schnee. I was going to destroy his empire. I was going to bring him and his allies to their knees and make certain they knew how outclassed they were by the end of it all.

The sensible thing for me to do would be to move on, of course. The man was done with us and, so long as team RWEBY didn't cause too much trouble for him, he would remain disinterested in our activities.

But that didn't matter to me. I was going to _end _him. I was going to watch his world burn and I was not going to act because of how he treated the faunus. Not because of how he treated my team. Not even because he abandoned Weiss and forced such sorrow on her.

No, I was going to ruin him simply because I could.

* * *

_A short time later_

The rubble on the ground, a product of the ruined buildings around me, announced its displeasure at my presence readily and eagerly. Given the poor lighting, I could not see well enough to avoid all of it. Every step I took loudly announced my presence in the otherwise quiet ruins; I thought it both eerie and disconcerting how noisy it sounded.

But then, I was not trying to be silent. I did not have the talent for that like Blake. I could not control my steps precisely enough to make them produce no sound like Weiss.

No, I was loud and I knew it. I counted on it.

How else was I to attract the attention of the light's owner?

Reckless at first glance was my plan, perhaps. To go out into the ruins on my own to confront an unknown enemy was not only dangerous but stupid as well. I knew nothing about this entity and the city's broken carcass was hazardous enough on its own.

A muffled grunt suddenly echoed from somewhere above me as I passed by the hollowed-out shell of what once looked to be an apartment building. An admonishment, spoken softly in a high, lilting voice quickly followed it.

"But then, I'm not exactly alone, am I?" I wondered to myself as the two fire extinguishers I carried in my right hand knocked together with a shrill metallic _clack_. In my other hand, a piece of rebar hung, ready and waiting. An impromptu baseball bat of sorts.

I cleared my throat and stopped as I reached the end of the apartment building. An open area stretched out in front of me, crowned by what was clearly the remains of a fountain in its center. It was an expansive area and I realized, with a sudden jolt that caused my eyebrows to arch, that this was the fabled Spectrum Square.

An involuntary snort escaped me. What was once a monument dedicated to Mistral's ground-breaking achievement of building a second city lay before me, ruined and reduced to so much rubble. Its once great statue, said to tower even over the tallest skyscraper, lay in crumbling pieces on the ground. Glass from the once pristine storefronts bordering the plaza littered the ground and the fountain that lay around the statue was cracked open and devoid of all water.

I set my fire extinguishers down on the ground, reveling in the hollow _clack _that echoed throughout the ruins, and sighed. It should have upset me more, seeing this devastation, but after traveling for several hours through ruined houses and empty buildings, I was more than a little jaded at the sight of Mistral Trade Route City's crumbling carcass. It, to me, was only another example that proved my point: Remnant was dangerous.

A sigh escaped me as I lowered myself to the ground and reclined against the base of the building behind me. My hand wasted no time in diving into my jean pocket to retrieve my Scroll and quickly I thumbed the device to life to find that it had a mere _19% _of its charge remaining. I knew the girls' Scrolls were already dead – I didn't think to tell them to turn off any extraneous features when we fled from Spotlight Citadel on that airship – and mine was going to follow theirs soon enough unless we found a source of power.

Liar's Landing was to be that source, I hoped. Qrow spoke briefly about a bar filled with shady characters before he disappeared to lands unknown in order to pursue Ozpin's business in Mistral. Shady characters or no, the fact that it was an inn precluded dust and dust meant power.

Hopefully.

Movement caught my eye and I focused upon it to find a spectral hand extending from my shadow. The hand gestured toward the fire extinguishers and then retreated back from whence it came without any further ado. I watched it go, sliding seamlessly into the ground beneath one of my legs and only just managed to suppress a shiver.

Unnatural, that.

All the same, Blake had just given me the all clear. As far as she could tell, none of the buildings around us held any beings, Grimm or otherwise.

I heaved myself to my feet, my lips curling into a grin, and grasped one of the red canisters in my hands.

Time to create a commotion.

There was a reason I was the one chosen to do ground duty, after all.

I cocked my arm back, my muscles coiled, and grasped the metallic object by its top. Then, with a grunt of exertion, I threw my arm forward and released a blast of my Aura behind the extinguisher.

And the reason?

I watched as the cylinder rocketed forward to impact the side of a building on the opposite end of the square. It ruptured and a loud _boom _announced its presence across the ruins, echoing deep into the buildings' shells and leaving behind it an eerie calm accompanied by ringing ears.

"I'd say that was hard enough," I muttered, a satisfied smile on my face. I was the only one on team RWEBY that could get one of those things to travel fast enough to rupture it. Weiss might be able to do it as well, with her glyphs, but the girl's arm was broken – better I do it.

Now, the only thing left to do was wait for our guest to make an appearance. In the darkness of the night, Blake would be able to find them first.

Or at least that's what team RWEBY was banking on.

There was always a chance that said guest was a faunus as well. Further, there was a chance that said guest might just choose to approach this clearing through the very same building in which my teammates hid. Even further, there was a chance that said guest might even decide to get a better vantage point from said building by entering the level upon which my teammates stood.

A chance, a very small, minute chance. But then, fortune favored the bold.

A growl, bestial and angry, sounded some distance to my left and I turned to find a Beowolf jump out of a building and into the square proper. The lone Grimm quickly spotted me and, just as swiftly, was joined thereafter by four of its fellows.

None of them were armored, thankfully, and none of them fit the quiet-and-observant picture that Blake painted of our nighttime watcher. These were young – indicated by a lack of said bone-white armor and the fact that they were only around eight feet tall instead of, say, ten or eleven.

I snorted even as the monsters began to circle me. My shadow, I thought, stirred and quivered, though that very well could have been the poor lighting.

"Are you here to keep me company?" I asked them blandly, when I grew bored of their wary approach. Honestly, they were Grimm… They didn't even have the mental capacity to _think _they could outwit me. "I'm afraid you'll find my conversation skills somewhat lacking…"

My taunt, despite the fact that they could not understand it, served its purpose.

I received a roar – a sound fit only for the most nightmarish of dreams – as my answer and, as their gambit, a charge.

A grin found its way onto my face even as I switched the rebar pole to my right hand, bringing it up in a brutal blow that sent the foremost Beowolf tumbling away from me, spitting angry yowls from its shattered muzzle. Spittle joined the black flakes that fell from its jowls even as it stumbled away from me.

My moment of triumph was short-lived for I was forced to catch another's overhand blow with my left arm even as a third Grimm clamped its jaws onto my leg. Immediately, it started to destabilize me by virtue of its greater height, weight and strength.

My teeth grit and I threw some of my Aura at the Beowolf lumbering over me, tossing the beast onto its back and leaving me free to bring the rebar down on the biting one's head. The Aura empowered weapon tore clean through its skull and impacted the ground with a dull _thud _even as the carcass it left behind began to dissipate.

"Is that all?" I asked, my arms wide as I faced the two Grimm that hadn't engaged me yet. The one I knocked away joined them while the one with the shattered muzzle was nowhere to be found, lost in the dark of the night and a haze left behind by the decaying Beowolf at my feet.

One of the beasts answered my challenge and, after coiling its muscles, threw itself at my head.

Once upon a time, the sight of an eight foot monster with a mouth full of teeth and unnatural-looking black fur that easily weighed over a ton flying at my person would have caused me to lock up. I would have frozen.

_-blood on the grass, staining it red. Was that a bone? It-_

But that time had long since passed.

I swung my improvised weapon in a high arch over my head. It was an overwhelmingly obvious attack that any student at Beacon worth their salt could have dodged. But this Grimm was not human or faunus. It did not enjoy the edge a sharp mind would have given it, not like my former classmates did.

There was also the small matter of it lacking a soul – and the protective energy that came with it.

Aura-imbued rebar met Grimm skull and the latter lost. _Badly_.

Another headless carcass dropped to the ground, already dissipating even as another Beowolf reached me. It swung its claws out at me and I growled, hiding behind my left arm to accept the blow and finding myself pushed back several feet in the process. The limb immediately went numb but I had no time to worry about that – the Grimm threw itself at me again, wild and reckless.

I side stepped the attack this time, prepared for it as I was, and took a moment to gather myself in the brief respite that followed. Two Grimm were destroyed but I still had two to deal with, in addition to the one I maimed earlier.

A howl echoed from somewhere deeper in the ruins but I paid it no mind.

My two opponents, however, took it as a call to action: they both hurled themselves toward me, one at my back and one at my front.

Aura burst forth from my left hand but the limb twitched and pain erupted at the point the Beowolf hit me. My attack missed its target, impacting the ground beneath the monster in front of me instead. The beast continued, unabated, and I was forced to jump away from it and the Beowolf behind me, lest I find myself cornered.

The second my feet touched the ground, I dropped my piece of rebar and carefully brought my hands together in front of me. Aura was promptly channeled through both of my arms and the limbs began to glow a dull blue just as both Grimm recovered and threw themselves at me once more.

I paid them no heed, though, focused as I was on the energy in my palms. It was not like the _wrech _that gave birth to this idea. My Aura, as reassuringly royal blue as always, obeyed my whims implicitly. It gathered quickly, until it was far too dense to see through, just as the Beowolves reached me.

My hands opened and, for a split second, I admired the ethereal blue orb in front of me. It ebbed and flowed; so many tiny, miniscule strands of energy interwoven in complete cohesion.

Harmony.

Then, I willed it forward.

The energy left my palms with a roar that left no doubt to its intent and my arms jerked back under the recoil.

The Grimm were stopped cold in their tracks, suspended in mid-air by a visible wave of blue force. The first one could not withstand the assault and the creature crumpled – bent and twisted under the lethal attack, its head crushed into a pulp – even as it was thrown backward, across the courtyard. The second was luckier. It was behind the first and thus did not suffer the full power of my Aura; instead of being utterly destroyed, it only had one of its arms torn off.

Still, despite the success of the attack, a frown touched my lips.

'_Not as powerful as I'd hoped, considering I poured nearly a quarter of my Aura into that,' _I noted. In gathering my Aura together outside of my body rather than inside, I'd hoped I could create more powerful blasts of force without the aching in my arms that normally followed it. And while it was true that my arms were not sore – the left one was still aching but that was due to the Beowolf hitting it - and so my experiment was at least partially successful, the attack was even more unfocused than my normal Aura blasts were when I used my arms as a medium.

'_I need something to focus it better, something like Ultimatum's barrel. Maybe I could gather energy there? Store it in the metal for future use?'_

My feet led me forward, across the courtyard quickly. I could hear the maimed Grimm moving about on the ground and, considering I was down nearly half my Aura due to my little experiment, I wanted the threat dealt with quickly.

The creature was in no shape to fight when I reached it, near the statue in the middle of the clearing. It barely made it to its feet and even then it could hardly keep its balance. A quick application of my Aura to its head downed the beast and damned it to dissolution.

I released a sigh in the wake of the Grimm's demise even as I watched it until every last dirty, darkened piece of flesh had evaporated. The glowing Grimm in the swamp had left me paranoid-

'_Hostile,' _my mind screamed. _'Hurts!'_

My breath was forced from my lungs and my head snapped to the side under an immense amount of pressure on my torso. I felt my feet leave the ground and my vision go white for a brief moment even as my ribs groaned under the strength of whatever had hit me. Head over heels, I flew through the air until the cold, cement ground arrested my momentum and I was left looking up at the pre-dawn sky, my mind sluggish and my bones aching.

'_What,'_ I thought slowly. The ground beneath me was cold… and hard. Why would I choose to lie down here? What was I doing here? What- I had just finished off the Grimm. Near the fountain!

I gasped, sucking in a breath that I didn't know I needed, even as my eyes blinked several times over in an effort to regain their focus. With an arm to support me, I pushed myself into a sitting-

'_Grimm!' _My mind screamed. _'Grimm!'_

For just in front of me – not even a body length away – was a Beowolf. Not the one I injured earlier. Not any of the ones I'd killed. It was not glowing. But it was _huge_.

'_Twelve feet, at least. Thick armor plating,' _my mind rattled off even as I desperately rolled away from the giant beast's claws. They hit the ground and left deep gouges in their wake instead and I scrambled to my feet in the time it took the beast to snarl at me.

I blinked one last time in an effort to clear the remaining spots from my vision and only just withheld a wince when I coiled my muscles – my ribs were _sore_. They hurt, they ached, they told me that this Grimm could hit _hard_.

Indeed, instead of being near the statue at the center of the clearing, I was now in front of an alleyway on the clearing's outer edge.

Nearly _one hundred_ feet away.

"Come on, asshole," I muttered, my breathing heavier than I'd like to admit. Without Ultimatum's weight and armor, I wouldn't be able to withstand this thing's attacks. "Don't got all day."

It snarled again and raised itself up on its hind legs, to its full height; it was then that I realized I was mistaken – this thing had to be at least _thirteen _feet tall. Not twelve. Its muzzle twitched and it briefly glanced toward the building where I knew my teammates were hiding.

"Oh fuck, Enten," I whispered, watching as the thing straightened even further, enough to grow another foot. "This might be a little too much."

Then, it looked back at me. Its malevolent, empty red eyes conveying its hatred in lieu of a spoken language. It snorted, glanced back toward the building again and, without so much as a single glance in my direction, turned away and ran.

I stood stock still, breathing heavily for several seconds. My eyes were wide, my jaw was unhinged and my fingers were clenched together tightly. I watched, enraptured, as the Grimm bounded across the open plaza and disappeared into the city's ruins.

A half relieved, half incredulous laugh forced its way out of my throat.

Since when did the Grimm run?

My focus reoriented itself upon the building in which my team hid, just as the Grimm's did.

It knew. It _had _to know. Somehow… somehow-

* * *

"_Very good, very good," Professor Port exclaimed, rewarding Legion E with a nod and a smile. "The Grimm primarily use their mundane senses to locate their prey but as all experienced hunters know, they can also find victims in other ways! I have a tale of my youth about just such a situation! But first, I would like an answer from my apprentices! How can the Grimm locate a human – or a faunus – if not by smell, sight or sound?"_

_My classmates grumbled halfhearted around me even as I blinked sleep away from my eyes. Ruby's snickering brought my attention to the girl two seats to my right, though, and I leaned around Weiss to find the girl doodling in her notebook again._

"_Come now future huntsmen! Surely, one of you must be ready to astound your mentor with your intellect!"_

_None of Beacon's first years rose to the challenge, distracted as they were by either homework from other classes, chattering quietly amongst each other or playing with their Scrolls. It was with a small influx of pride that I noticed QuikPik present on no less than three such devices._

_Professor Port grumbled, clearly displeased, and cast his eyes about the classroom as his fingers began to stroke his enormous mustache. "Very well! I have learnt over my many years as a teacher that sometimes, one must be called upon to offer up their vast pool of knowledge! Miss Infuocato! How else can the Grimm sense a target?"_

"_Uh," the redhead stammered, her spine suddenly ramrod straight. "They… They sense hatred?"_

"_Almost," the man exclaimed, clapping his hands together excitedly and causing the quiet girl – SAFR's A - to jump. Farther down my row, I heard Ruby grunt in surprise._

"_The Grimm can indeed sense hatred, my young wards! But you must also remember that they can sense – and are drawn to, of course – all negative emotions!"_

_I heard my leader snort on the other side of Weiss and the white haired girl released a sharp exhalation of breath through her nose a short moment later. Intrigued, I glanced over to find Ruby leaning shamelessly across the Schnee heiress._

"_Betcha Cardin'll be a Grimm magnet," the girl whispered, a grin on her lips, before Weiss managed to elbow her away._

* * *

Negative emotion.

I blinked.

The Grimm must have sensed my teammates reactions when it hit me earlier. I was fairly certain that my unwilling trip across the square incited feelings of anger, fear and maybe even some despair in my teammates.

'_It sensed them,' _I decided, recalling the way the thing's head twitched toward the building. _'It sensed them and, once it knew they were here, it retreated.'_

Suddenly, I realized with absolute certainty that I just met Blake's Watcher-Grimm.

"You there," a masculine voice behind me suddenly called. "Boy!"

I jumped and whirled about to face the new presence, cursing myself for letting my awareness drop as I did so, only to have my eyes widen for the second time in the last minute as I finished my turn.

In front of me, a man stood. He wore a long, brown cloak that looked to be made of some kind of material similar to the rough cloth used for potato sacks. The garment reached down to his ankles and it was clasped shut in front of his clavicle by a brooch that was shaped in the likeness of a sun. From that very same brooch hung a small lantern, its flame the only source of light by which I could see his person.

His hair – a dark color I couldn't completely make out in the dim lighting – was unkempt and long, as was his beard. His nose was crooked and his skin generally dirty and unclean. In his gnarled hands, he held a small crossbow and I could just make out a quiver on his back.

He was also completely naked.

My mind froze for a brief moment, scanning the figure even as I heard him release a growl.

'_Yeah. Other than that cloak, he's got nothing.'_

The man wasn't even wearing _shoes_.

"Boy!" He spat.

"Uh," I swallowed, blinking once, then again, before I brought my eyes up to his face. I shook my head, torn between disbelief and exasperation. "What?"

"Good," he grunted, hobbling closer, favoring one leg as he did so. "Are you a follower of the brood witch, boy?"

My eyes narrowed as he approached and I was able to pick out several yellow figures draw onto his skin. They were intricate depictions that generally featured the sun, some looked like they might even be scriptures of a kind. He was covered head-to-toe in them, even his genitals were not spared the tattoos.

"Boy!"

My gaze snapped back up to his face even as I realized just how much Yang was going to enjoy my meeting with this… fellow. "Brood witch?"

"She who prowls the night," he growled, his eyes narrowed. "All know of her witchcraft, her sorcery! She takes _them _into her arms. Makes them obey. Makes them even more monstrous than before!"

My mouth moved but I found I could not find any words for my current situation. In all my years, never had I expected something so… so… _outlandish._

I thought I was meeting one of the locals. Likely a man driven insane by the state of the city and the life he was forced to live. Perhaps this 'brood witch' was a woman that wronged him in the past and her underlings were what he was describing?

"But fear not," he said, one hand outstretched in what I thought to be a consoling gesture. "For the Great Sun protects us all! It is by His grace that we will live!"

Or, he could just be a religious nutjob.

'_Wonderful.'_

* * *

**A/N: **What's up guys? How've you been? Long time, no see, right?

We're about to get to the meat of Liar's Landing and the Mistral Trade Route City's ruins – fear not! This chapter (and probably the next one as well, if I'm honest with myself) will largely be used to set the scene and introduce the powers at play here.

Because you don't just have an abandoned city without someone – or several someones – who want to take it over! Maybe we'll even see Cinder… who knows?

Drop me a note, let me know what you think! I've decided to scrap the lengthy author's notes in favor of answering specific questions through private messages so if you have one (or several) then feel free to message me!

Lastly, I'll be up in Canada for the better part of next week so I apologize if I take a while to get back to you.

Till next time!

-Phailen


	40. Chapter 40

_Vale – Beacon Academy – Week 19, The Vytal Festival begins in 14 days - Legione Estate_

"Dacc," I barked as I shouldered open the door to his room. "Get. _Up!"_

My useless lump of a brother only groaned though, recoiling away from the light spilling onto his bed from our common area and flipping over onto his stomach to hide from it. His head was promptly buried beneath his pillow.

And, as if the situation was not trying enough already, somewhere behind me, Ye'lo Malamig released a breathy giggle.

_'Of course this is funny for her. Everything is funny for her!'_

A growl escaped my throat. "Every morning," I reminded him, sympathy for my caring-loving-understanding-_patient _mother flooding my every vein. "You do this _every morning! _Even when we were supposed to meet team RWEBY for training!"

Another moan escaped Legione D'Acciaio but still, the dark skinned boy refused to move.

"Fine! Stay there then. Miss class. I don't care!"

The most annoying part of this entire sordid ordeal was the fact that I _did _care. I did care and he knew it and he would abuse it until the day he died! I cared for my team's appearance. I cared for our grades. I wanted us to do well in every facet of our lives and I was more than willing to be the bad guy to make certain that happened! If I did not, then no one would - Dacc was too lazy to bother, Ye'lo was too much of an airhead and Jayd was too withdrawn. All of that meant that I was saddled with painful job of making sure we were where we needed to be at all times.

_'Which should be a leader's job,' _I thought darkly.

"Maybe I can wake him up again," my partner's voice called from behind me. I could almost hear the grin on her face.

"No. He has to get up on his own, the lazy ass," I said, spinning to face Ye'lo as she fingered the edge of her uniform's blouse.

"Spoilsport," Dacc muttered behind me, barely audible.

A sharp exhalation of air exited my nose even as I spun around to face him again. "Don't _even _get mad, you useless pile of-"

"Ohh, come on, Stella!" Ye'lo whispered behind me, carefully eying my brother as she did. "It's just a little flash... _totally _harmless. And plus! His face never gets old and you _know _daddy won't let anything serious come of it. It's not like he's good enough to be with me or anything..."

I chewed on my lip, glancing first at the girl's wide, expectant eyes and then back at my brother's bed. I knew I should be angry that the brown haired girl dismissed Dacc so brutally but I was about ready to throttle the boy and thus, willing to let the insult slide.

Ye'lo did not mean anything by it anyway - it was just the way she was raised. Her father was the creator of the system our Scrolls used to operate and she was one of four heirs to the family fortune. Alongside all the servants, manners and schedules, she was also instilled with a very large sense of entitlement.

In other words, the girl had a _huge _ego.

Why else would she take _Ruby Rose's _strawberries? Honestly. RWEBY's leader only mentioned them in every other sentence at meal time. Yang's frantically mimed warnings and Enten's carefully worded excuses once the deed was done were both equally ignored by Ye'lo.

If she wanted something, she got it. She learned - sometime before I met her and subsequently became her partner - that if she wanted the best, then she got it. And Dacc simply did not meet her standards. I knew differently, of course; I knew that underneath the laziness and the desire to take the easy route to the top but still expect all the benefits of hard work, he was a good brother. A kind person. Reliable.

But there were times, times like _this one_, where that was so very, very hard to remember.

So I sighed and turned away from the doorway, gesturing carelessly at Ye'lo over my shoulder.

The girl grinned at me, already pulling at her blouse and I noticed then that she was wearing the pink set today.

Because she had sets.

The fact that I knew that about her - as well as just where that pink set pinched on her - should have disturbed me more than it did.

But that was Ye'lo in a nutshell. Too innocent and too oblivious to any kind of consequences that might come about because of what she did.

Daddy could just make her problems go away, after all.

I raised a hand to rub at my eyes as I took a seat on one of the couches that circled the center of team JYDE's common area. It was a nice place, roomy and garbed in warm colors that never failed to remind me of home. Carefully, I began to focus on happier thoughts as my surroundings worked in concert to calm me down. Dueling day was one of those thoughts, for example – it was always fun to test myself in the arena against my fellow classmates. The Vytal Festival was another... Really, I thought of anything to get my mind off of Dacc and Ye'lo.

It largely worked too - the giant arena that the Vytal Tournament would be held in arrived yesterday. As in, arrived through the air. As in... it _flew _here.

And wasn't that a sight! A structure that was almost as big as Beacon Academy hovering over Vale before it came to a stop just over the cliff upon which my school sat. It made me wish the tournament was starting _this _Monday instead of two weeks from now. It made me wish I could be in my yellow battle-dress and armor instead of this stuffy uniform. It made me want to practice with Bombo so that I could impress everyone with my spear-play!

I could picture it now. Ruby would rave over my weapon and my skill with it, Weiss would offer me a grudgingly-impressed compliment, Enten would immediately start to brainstorm new ideas with me, Blake would give me that half-smile she favored and Yang would whoop and holler and it would all be so fantastic!

"Thanks for dealing with him, Estate," Jayd's voice interjected, drawing me from my pleasant thoughts and back into my not-so-pleasant situation. "I really appreciate it."

The boy was smiling at me so I, despite the irritation I felt for him, returned it as best I could.

_'You always really appreciate it. You're always super grateful but you never take the initiative!'_

"Don't mention it," I said instead, finally managing a half smile.

A silence settled over us then, punctuated at times by noise emanating from my brother's room. I could hear Ye'lo giggling still and suddenly found myself in need of a breath of fresh air. In need of new surroundings, away from my periodically frustrating team and among people whom I did not need to babysit like children.

"I'll be outside," I called to Jayd, pacing my way toward the door that led to our hierarchy's main common area. And, because I knew Ye'lo flashing her bra at my brother sometimes wouldn't be enough to get that boy out of bed: "If he's not up in ten minutes, come get me."

"Yes, mother," the boy retorted, his voice dry.

I bit back the reprimand that nearly flung itself from my mouth before I could stop it and instead walked faster toward the door. Toward my freedom.

_'I wouldn't need to mother you if you would only step up and take some responsibility,' _I thought acidly, pushing open the heavy oak door and smiling as the sun washed over me, allowed as it was into the vast, circular room through the grand windows that dotted its walls.

The intricate chandelier that sparkled so brilliantly when JYDE first joined the hierarchy was unlit, unneeded as it was by the natural light pouring into the room. The white marble walls and dark marble floors still contrasted wonderfully to my eyes and the dark leather furniture about the room completed the same extravagent appearance that rendered me speechless the first time I laid eyes upon it.

"Estate," a deep, masculine voice greeted me. "Good morning."

Tytanu Krwi, fourth year leader of team TNDR, the most senior team in our hierarchy, sat upon one of the couches that outlined the round table in the center of the room. The redhead, like myself, had on Beacon's school uniform.

Opposite him, on the second year couch, I saw a head of pale blonde hair facing away from me.

"Nel!" I blurted out, a genuine smile growing on my lips. "You're back early!"

The blonde head of hair suddenly became a face because the girl slung her head over the back of the couch. An wide, upside-down, toothy grin greeted me and I noted her long, blonde hair was done up into an intricate looking braid.

"E!" The girl shouted, throwing herself haphazardly over the back of the couch. She only half made it but managed to twist herself until she could plant her feet on the ground in front of me. Once she did, she threw herself at me in a bear hug.

"I thought you weren't supposed to be back until next week," I laughed, pulling back so that I could cast an eye over her. "And weren't you supposed to be as tan as me?"

She gave me a sour look, her hands folded across her chest. "You know I don't tan well," she retorted, taking a moment to blow a raspberry at me. "And _besides_, your skin is _naturally _dark! Mine's, like..."

"Just about as pasty as it can get?"

"Feh," she scoffed, looping one of her arms through mine. "I _tried _to tan, you know. But Atlas isn't exactly the best spot for sunlight!"

"Yeah," I agreed. "It's probably just about the worst spot ever." Then, because she looked legitimately put off by her lack of color: "We can go down to the beach later? The shoreline should be untouched by-"

"Ohhh, yeeeees," the girl hummed as she briefly embraced me from the side. "I missed you, E! All those stuffy rich snobs in Atlas were going to drive me spare!"

"Speaking of all those rich snobs, how was your benefactor? Tavel, right?"

"Tavla," the girl corrected me, pulling me over to the second year couch as she did so. The blonde tossed a grin at Tytanu before she turned back to me. "And he's okay, I guess. I mean... I know I gotta keep him happy but he's just so... so..."

"Self-important," I tried, a smirk pulling my lips back. "Self-centered. Obnoxious. Cocky."

Nelke nodded her head emphatically. "All of those things! You remember how I told you he _hates _hearing his son mentioned?!"

"Yeah," I grunted, offering Tytanu a nod when the boy rose from his seat and wandered off toward his team's common area.

LIMN's N waited until the boy was gone and the door was shut behind him to continue.

"Sorry," she said. "He just doesn't like it when I complain, you know-"

"Cause Tavla's such an asset, yeah," I said, waving aside the comment. "So? His son?"

"_Right! _Some dunce mentioned him at The Schnee Gala!"

"No way..." I muttered. "What did- Did Tavla hear?"

"They said it to his face!"

A short bark of laughter escaped my throat. "Did he puff up and get all red?"

"I wasn't there," the girl said, chewing on her lip. "I kiiiiiind of faked being sick to get out of going."

"Nel! You know how important keeping him is to your team and-"

"I know, I know. Honestly, E, I'm not your-" She paused, tossing a glance toward JYDE's door, before turning back to me. "Well, at any rate, I know how important he is and I wouldn't have just shirked that thing unless I knew he would be okay with it. Which he was, by the way; the fact that some dunderhead brought up his son even worked out in my favor! He was so pissed off when he came back to his manor that he forgot I was even there!"

"Well," I muttered, maintaining eye contact with the girl for a few seconds. "Alright then. I'm happy you had a good time at least."

She nodded. "A very good time. I didn't have to see Ye'lo even once."

"She's not that bad-"

"E," the girl I considered my best friend offered me a smile. "She's a ditz that gets by because you _make _her. Honestly, she's lucky you're so kind - I would have given up on her a loooong time ago."

I hummed, trying but ultimately failing to come up with some kind of defense for my partner. She was a decent enough fighter because she knew that she had to be serious when weapons were drawn - her father had hired enough trainers to instill that in her, at least - but off of the battlefield... well, she was difficult to put up with.

And that was putting it nicely.

On the other side of the coin, Nelke couldn't be more different. Where Ye'lo was concerned with herself - a product of her affluent upbringing, I thought - Nel was always worried about other people more than herself. She was orphaned as a child by an accident during Mountain Glenn's construction. Made parent-less at age six, she was promptly tossed from foster home to foster home until she awakened her Aura at the age of twelve. At the time, she was in Atlas; her caretakers shipped her off to Atlas Academy's junior school where she managed to impress Tavla. Once out of Atlas' junior huntsmen academy, she decided to attend Beacon Academy.

"E," the girl tried again. "What's wrong?"

I shook my head, a fond smile on my face. "Just... do you remember when we met?"

"Yup," she chirped. "You were fresh off of a loss to your crush and down in the dumps-"

"He's not my crush."

"Aaaaaand, to make matters worse, you were just then realizing that getting your team a good hierarchy was going to fall to your shoulders!"

A bittersweet sigh escaped my lips. "Yeah... that was- I wasn't at my best."

"Nope," the girl agreed. "You just about bit my head off when I sat down next to you. Apparently that was _your _bench."

"I said I was sorry for that."

"I know. And I said all was forgiven."

I pulled in a deep breath. "He's not my crush, you know," I said, continuing before she could get a word in edgewise. "I respect Enten and what he does."

"Is that why you let him call you E?"

"Yeah," I muttered. "I respect him because he 's everything I want in a teammate. Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang too, for that matter. They're all driven. They're all serious when they need to be and laid-back when the situation allows for it... They're all just... wow. Just, wow."

"They cast a long shadow," Nelke agreed, nudging my shoulder with hers. "But hey, your team trains with them, right? So what if they're ahead of you now, you'll get there. I know you will."

"Maybe," I said. "My team just fell into training with them - Enten made the offer and set up the dates, you know? We just stumbled into that like I stumbled into this-"

"Hey now, none of that! I've told you countless times, Legione Estate, that you got your team into this hierarchy all on your own. Yeah, you just happened to meet me during recruitment season, but all I did was get you some face time with my illustrious leader. You did the rest, E. You."

Another sigh escaped me just as I heard a commotion erupt behind me, within my team's common room.

"I suppose-"

"Suppose nothing," she declared, moving to kneel in front of me. Once there, she took hold of my chin and looked directly into my eyes. "You shoulder so much for that team, E, so much that it amazes me they don't worship the ground you walk on. You got your team here. You did the talking. You faced down my _entire hierarchy _while your leader struggled not to look at my boobs."

I was smiling now, both appreciative beyond words for the reassurance and amused at the reminder of team JYDE's first meeting with the hierarchy.

"You _were _wearing your sports bra, weren't you..."

"Not by choice," she said, grinning. "But you're trying to draw attention away from yourself and your achievements, again. You're trying to get out of accepting praise for saving your team from itself, E. _You _are the reason your team is number two here. You."

"I didn't-" She gave me a look and I cut my sentence short.

"I mean, thanks, Nel... I… I guess I needed that pick-me-up."

"No problem, E," the girl said. "Now... is team RWEBY's current, ah, _situation _the cause for your dark and gloomy act?"

"No," I said, idly running a hand though my hair. It was just as frizzy and just as easy to control as it always was. That was to say: not at all. An exasperated grimace pulled at my lips when I continued. "It's just been a long morning. Dacc is doing his I'm-not-getting-out-of-bed routine and Ye'lo isn't helping matters by encouraging him. Jayd won't lift a finger to help..."

"Hpmh," the girl grunted, throwing herself back onto the couch next to me. "Well at least it's nothing new, right?"

"I suppose."

Nel fell silent and allowed herself to recline fully on the couch. Around us, I could hear the muted sounds of our hierarchy preparing for the day. My team's common area was now silent and I hoped that meant they were all getting ready for class.

The blonde next to me snorted suddenly and nudged me with her elbow. "Hey. Hey! Guess why I'm back early."

My eyes widened. "Oh! Right... you were due back next Monday but here you are, today..."

"Here I am, today, in all my eye-blindingly white glory."

"Eye-blindingly white," I parroted. "I'm going to remember that one."

She narrowed her eyes. "No you won't. Not if you want to hear why Tavla sent me back!"

"You ran him out of tanning oil?"

"No, you ass," she chortled. "It was actually..." Her good humor fled her. "Well, it was actually what your friends did..."

I closed my eyes and released a slow exhalation of breath. "It's true, then? Team RWEBY is..."

"On the run from the law? Accused of trying to murder everyone in Spotlight Citadel? Trying to rid Remnant of ninety percent of all its pompous, snobby citizenry? Yes, on all three counts."

I shook my head, silent for several moments because what could I say? That they didn't do it? That they were set up? That I hoped they were alright? That I wanted their name cleared? That I worried about what Ruby would do without her strawberries or Weiss - _oh! _Weiss! She lost her family! Her entire family had forsaken her.

No, I couldn't put to words what I was feeling.

Rage. Indignation. Hope. Sorrow. Too many conflicting emotions to count.

The best word I could come up with was: resolute.

Because whether they knew it or not, team RWEBY had friends at Beacon Academy.

"Damn," I said at length, shaking my head. "Damn..."

* * *

"Alright students!" Professor Port exclaimed as the clock finally, _finally _indicated his long-winded lecturing time was up. "Don't forget! Read up on my adventures with my almost-pet Boarbatusk for next time!"

I, alongside my fellow first years, largely ignored the man as we went about gathering our things. The entire class was spent in a suffocating silence punctuated by the man's boisterous speeches and I was more than ready to be done with Beacon Academy for the week. No one wanted to answer questions, whispered conversations occurred at all times and the five chairs that team RWEBY usually took were conspicuously empty.

The lack of their presence in the class room was astonishingly obvious.

Ye'lo was already losing her mind over the drama but at least Jayd and Dacc seemed loathe to get dragged into the gossiping girl's antics.

Honestly, _one _Ye'lo Malamig was more than enough for me.

As if she heard my thoughts, the girl chose that moment to gasp.

"What if," she started, her hands up and her fingers splayed, as though she was warding off danger. "What if, they, like... _needed _to disappear?! Like, a forbidden romance between a faunus and a human!"

"That's not exactly forbidden, Ye'lo," I reminded her slowly.

"Yeah but for a-" She gasped again. "But for a _Schnee _it would be! Daddy says so! If Weiss found a faunus lover..."

The girl trailed off, giggling behind her hands even as I shook my head, an exasperated smile on my face. For all her faults, Ye'lo could always be counted on to lighten the mood, intentionally or not.

The girl gasped again. "What if it was a love triangle! A jilted faunus lover because her father wouldn't let her see him. A human in love with her but she didn't-"

"Students, please remain in your seats," Professor Goodwitch's voice declared even as the woman abruptly appeared in the classroom door. She paced steadily toward the front of the lecture hall while Professor Port, alongside the first year students, hesitated.

"I apologize for the interruption, Peter," the blonde woman continued.

The man's eyes widened and he jumped. "Oh! Not at all Glynda! I don't mind at all! Perhaps you have some stories to share with our young wards?"

"No stories as such," the woman responded, only then glancing toward the classroom at large. Her eyes narrowed. "Why are you still standing? Be seated."

"Such a pain," Dacc muttered as he settled himself back in his chair. "Can't we just get this day over with?"

"Hush, Dex," Ye'lo hissed as she plopped down next to the boy, her brown hair bouncing. "This is _new. _This is _different!"_

"Thank you students," Goodwitch said, casting a glance about the classroom. "I have come here today to speak briefly on a matter that will affect all of you. There is no doubt in my mind that many of you have questions and I will attempt to answer them to the best of my abilities. It is my hope that, by the time you exit this room, all rumors will be put to rest surrounding this issue."

The class quieted instantly, the blonde professor having earned our undivided attention with that introduction.

"I am speaking, of course, about the events surrounding your fellow students on team RWEBY," the woman continued, slapping her riding crop down on Professor Port's desk when my fellow first years burst into exited whispers.

"I told you," Ye'lo hissed. "I knew it! It's a faunus-Weiss-human love triangle! A jilted-"

"Students," Goodwitch barked, briefly lifting Port's desk with her power and dropping it again just as quickly. The resounding _boom _managed to cut Ye'lo - and her fellow gossipers - off cleanly.

"Thank you," the blonde woman continued slowly, taking several seconds to glance around the classroom before she continued. "I will not speak any further if you continue to behave like _children_. You are students of Beacon - huntsmen in training. Act like it."

The woman glanced about the classroom again, her riding crop held aloft as if to dare any unlucky soul stupid enough to speak up. No one did though, no one made any sort of sound - even Professor Port was standing rigidly at attention.

"Very well. Team RWEBY, as of this morning, stands accused of attempted mass murder," the woman said. Speaking louder when a few whispers broke out again. "_They have not been proven_\- Silence! ...They have not been proven guilty as of yet but those charges alone and the fact that they ran are enough to label them criminals.

"Hagel Schnee brought forth the charges - specifically, they stand accused of cooperating with the White Fang in an attempt to destroy Spotlight Citadel. They were last seen leaving the Citadel in a Schnee airship. However, someone disabled the tracking system in the ship near Vale's coast. We are currently unaware of their-"

"So they did escape!" Cardin Winchester barked, half on his feet. "Good fucking job! Those faunus bastards set them-"

"They did not, you racist!" A student in the first row threw back at the boy. I could not see her from my vantage point but my eyebrows arched in surprised all the same. Vocal support for the faunus was rare...

"What was-" Cardin started.

"Yeah, you idiot! You're just a faunus hater!" Another student yelled, this one somewhere behind me. I thought the voice sounded like that Fuoco boy, from SAFR.

"Students!" Goodwitch tried, rapping her riding crop on the desk again. "Students!"

Cardin spun to face his new detractor, his eyes narrowed. "You wanna say that to my face, asshole?!"

"Sure will," Fuoco growled. The javelin-wielding boy rose to his feet too. "You're a stupid racist!"

"Wow," Ye'lo whispered, grabbing at my arm even as Cardin yelled something back at Fuoco. "This is _crazy! Nobody _stands up for the faunus! This is, like… _a revolution!_"

"Enough!" Goodwitch barked.

I turned my attention away from Ye'lo's wide eyed expression of surprised amusement just in time to feel my chair leave the ground. A yelp escaped my lips before I could stop it and I desperately grasped at the edges of my seat to stay on it even as it rose above a foot off the-

It dropped suddenly and abruptly and the air in my lungs left me in a gasp. I hunched over on the desk in front of me, pulling in deep gulps of air.

"Mr. Winchester. Mr. Pilum. Ms. Birch. Another word from any of you _will _land you in detention. You _will not _attend dueling class this Friday and you _will _have lines to write instead. For the entire duration of the class. Not. Another. Word."

The students seemed sufficiently cowed though I could not exactly tell, given I was still gasping for breath. The professor's gambit caught me at the worst time, just as I was gasping in surprise.

"Guh," I spluttered, my face hot. Still, I managed to sit upright again and focus on the professor.

"Now, you have been made aware of the situation regarding Team RWEBY. Do you have any questions?"

Hands immediately darted up into the air but still, not a single soul spoke. The display of power we just observed was evidently more than enough to cow even the most vocal of students in my year.

"Mr. Noir."

"Did they kill anyone?"

Goodwitch shook her head. "No one was injured, fatally or otherwise, at The Schnee Gala. Mr. Ty?"

"How did they steal the airship?" Ognis, the leader of OPUL said.

"It is not known how team RWEBY came into possession of that airship... Ms. Malamig?"

"Are they okay?"

"At the time of their disappearance, they were in good health," Goodwitch said, eyeing my teammate for a moment before returning her attention to the class at large. "Mr. Chord."

"Why did they try to blow up that place?"

"There is currently no known motive. Mr. Verbrand?"

An uneasy hum reverberated from my throat and I took my lip between my teeth, kneading it even as my eyes focused on the desk before me.

Something was wrong here. The way the professor was wording her answers... it was like she was trying not to say something. Sort like she was hiding something, like Dacc did when he was younger. He would get all evasive with what he said and... well, it seemed like Professor Goodwitch was doing the same thing here.

"Did they leave a message or anything behind?" Eik, leader of EMRD, asked.

"Team RWEBY did not leave behind any messages when they left Spotlight Citadel," Goodwitch responded. "Ms. Infuocato?"

_'When they __**left **__Spotlight Citadel. Why is she being so specific? Why not just say when they ran?"_

"Um, how were they going to destroy the building?"

"That is unknown. Ms. Nikos?"

"Who was the White Fang conspirator?"

"We have not been able to find such a connection. Mr. Bronzewing."

There were so many vague answers here... The official story was that a White Fang sympathizer within RWEBY tried to blow up The Citadel. That Blake Belladonna was a faunus with a grudge against Schnee Dust Company. But now... no motive, no method of destruction, how they came about their escape ship was unknown. A link between RWEBY and the White Fang could not even be discovered...

I put my hand in the air.

"Is Blake Belladonna truly a faunus?"

"We have not been able to confirm that rumor, Mr. Bronzewing. Mr. Arc?"

"Where is team RWEBY now?"

"As I said before, we lost track of the airship just off of Vale's coast. Ms. Legione?"

My eyes narrowed - she did not directly say that RWEBY's whereabouts were unknown.

"Is there..." I started slowly, suddenly nervous in the face of the classroom's silence. Was I right? Was I just reading too much into this?

I swallowed. "Uh, Professor Goodwitch, is there any proof that team RWEBY actually did all that?"

The woman's lips twitched. "No, Ms. Legione. There is not."

Immediately, the classroom forgot the professor's earlier display of power and erupted into whispers. Some students leapt to their feet and began shouting. Some argued with one another. Others still sat quietly, evidently reflecting on what they just learned. Opinions were tossed about freely and sides were taken quickly and resolutely.

"Framed by a jilted lover!" Ye'lo cheered. "I knew it! I knew it!"

Pyrrha Nikos abruptly stood up and left the classroom, Jaune Arc trailing behind her once he realized she was gone. That Nora girl was shaking her partner by his shoulders and Cardin was yelling something at Fuoco again.

It was chaos. It was pandemonium. It was _insane_.

And through it all, I felt a pair of eyes on me, watching me like a hawk.

I swiveled my head, searching for them even as Ye'lo turned instead to Dacc as a gossip partner. In the chaos that enshrouded the classroom, it was not hard to spot the figure watching me. She stood completely still. She did not blink. No movement whatsoever.

When I made eye contact with Professor Goodwitch, the blonde woman only stared back.

We stayed like that for several seconds – me, frozen and her… intent on something unknown to me. I could not look away, not even when Ye'lo started to shake my shoulder.

And then, the woman raised her hand and, slowly, crooked a finger at me.

The message was clear: Follow.

* * *

"Here we are," Professor Goodwitch said, indicating the sole door in the long, curved hallway. "Headmaster Ozpin has asked to speak to you, Ms. Legione."

"Just me?" I asked numbly, desperately going over the last few days of school for anything I did that might have broken a rule. "Look, I swear I didn't mean to rip that curtain! It was after dueling class and I was tired and I wasn't watching where I was going-"

"Ms. Legione," the woman said, holding up a hand to forestall any further babbling. I shut my mouth with an audible _click, _flushing when the edge of the woman's lip quirked upward. "I assure you, you are not in any trouble. The Headmaster only has a proposition to discuss with you."

Then, she glanced over my shoulder, where I knew Jayd, Ye'lo and Dacc were standing. "And your team, of course."

"My team," I muttered. "Right. They wouldn't be here if I was in trouble, would they?"

"That is correct," the blonde professor agreed, again indicating the doorway.

"Right. The Headmaster," I said, mentally trying and utterly failing to calm my nerves.

_'Just open the door, dunce! Put your hand on the handle, turn and push!'_

I swallowed once more and, with one last glance at Goodwitch, opened the door.

Immediately, sunlight nearly blinded me. The room was _bright _and it was a very startling transition from the darkened hallway. The sun's rays streamed in from a giant, circular window behind a large, oaken desk. They also filtered into the room through the open ceiling, despite the glass containing many moving cogs of all different sizes being in the way.

_'It's like a giant clock tower,' _I thought numbly, only vaguely aware that my feet were bringing me further into the room.

"Ms. Legione," a voice said. It sounded old and confident, like it was wizened and oh-geez-Ozpin-was-addressing-me!

"Ye-" I yelped, furiously clearing my throat. "Yes, sir!"

"At ease," he said slowly, eyeing me over his white coffee mug. The man watched as I stopped saluting him - _'Why did I do that?! So stupid!' _\- and leaned back in his ornate looking chair. His Scroll was on the oaken desk in front of him and, belatedly, I realized that said oaken desk had a display screen built into its surface.

The man allowed silence to pervade the air between us and only the slow, rhythmic grinding of the gears overhead kept my crazed thoughts company. Suddenly, I wished I was in my yellow battle dress and armor. It was so, so much more comfortable than my stuffy uniform. The spaulders fit my shoulders _just _right and the breastplate was an ever comforting weight on my person. It gave me peace of mind through its protection-

The door clicked shut.

I jumped.

"The students on team RWEBY," the man said, softly placing his mug down on the desk in front of him. With his other hand, he dragged a notepad over the wooden surface until it was just in front of him. "Are criminals."

A snort escaped me before I could contain it and I felt Ye'lo shift uneasily at my side.

"They attempted to destroy Spotlight Citadel and all of its denizens besides. It was a plot born of hatred, by a faunus shunned by society proper."

My mouth worked silently and my team offered no response either. Jayd was standing ramrod straight on my other side and Ye'lo was producing a sound somewhere between a moan and a growl.

"I- Headmaster," I tried, focusing on my memories of team RWEBY. Of training with them. Laughing with them. Coming to know them as friends! ...Of Ruby and her strawberry addiction. Of how she would do anything for her team and earnestly wished to do right by people. Of Weiss and the way she tried - but always, always failed - to keep herself emotionless around her team. Of the affection she could never truly hide behind that aloof facade. Of Enten and his plotting, his planning. Of how he always wanted a contingency in place to protect his team from anything that might harm it. Of Blake and - upon receiving her team's encouragement - her awkward attempts at friendship. Of how she never ran out of books to read or recommend or lend to anyone she cared for. Of Yang and her boundless enthusiasm. Of how she never truly stopped smiling around her team and never had a joke or a laugh far away.

These were the murderers? These five were supposed to be criminals now?

"I would suggest you keep your opinions-"

"They're no murderers!" I blurted out, immediately falling silent amid the stunned silence that followed my exclamation.

_'I just shouted at the Headmaster,' _my mind screamed. _'Oh, I'm soooo done. I'm out. Totally expelled tomor-'_

Ozpin rose to his feet, drawing me from my thoughts and stilling my mind. The man remained silent as he began walking forward, causing my spine to go even more rigid with every step he took. Soon, his dress shoes tapping across the ground served as the only sound I could hear in the circular office. It was though all other sounds faded away.

Suddenly, I realized my heart was pounding in my chest and that it was keeping pace with the man's shoes.

_Tap. Tap. Tap._

Slowly, he ambled around his desk, his glasses low on his nose. He watched me over the frames still, eyes unblinking.

_Tap. Tap. Tap._

He drew closer. Closer still, only halting once he stood directly in front of me and I was on the verge of a panic attack.

The shoes stopped.

I gasped.

And he smiled.

"Team RWEBY," the man said softly, barely a foot in front of me. "Is dangerous. They are a team of criminals. Fit only for a jail cell."

My eyes, formerly widened in surprise, narrowed when I felt something slide into my hand. I belatedly closed my mouth once I realized it was hanging open and moved the object around between my fingertips. It was something thin- a piece of paper! A... A note? But he hadn't written anything...

"They are dangerous, Ms. Legione," the man continued, slowly wandering around my team until he left my line of sight. "The proof against them is ironclad and their guilt, a certainty."

The note unraveled in my hand and I glanced down at it. The paper was crumpled but the words, written in an elegant script, were as clear as ever.

_"They are innocent."_

My blood ran cold and my eyes went wide once more.

"I suggest you forget your involvement with them. All of you," Ozpin continued, somewhere around my brother now, on the opposite end of the line. His footsteps continued. "Their whereabouts are unknown and, to my students, I intend to keep it that way."

Another note found its way into my hand as he circled around behind me but he never put pen to paper. He never wrote anything. Not while we were in the room...

"_They are in Liar's Landing, in the ruins of Mistral Trade Route City."_

He knew. He- Team RWEBY! What was going on here?!

Were they criminals? No! He was saying- But the notes were saying something he was not. They were telling me a story that he _could not_!

"Now," Ozpin continued, finally rounding around Ye'lo and coming to a stop in front of me. "I am sending team JYDE on an extended mission. Grimm protection detail – a chance to clear your heads."

Another note slipped into my fingers.

"I expect you to forget about team RWEBY," Ozpin continued. "Team JYDE enjoyed strong bonds with them, and I sympathize with you for your loss, but team JYDE cannot bring team RWEBY to justice. Leave that to the professionals. Leave that to _me_. I have taken sole responsibility for bringing my five wayward students to justice and I'll not risk losing another four."

The note came unfolded in my fingertips.

"Team JYDE cannot help team RWEBY."

_'But team EDJY can.'_

My breath left me in a muted gasp, the implications of the note within my fingers startling me into silence. The digits clenched reflexively and the note was crushed between them.

He wanted me to lead? He thought team JYDE- team EDJY could help team RWEBY somehow? Could I even do that? Would my team even follow me?

Did I even want this?

"It would certainly be a shame if team RWEBY managed to recover their weapons, don't you think?" Ozpin mused, returning to his desk and grasping his mug once more. "But they are still safely sealed away in their lockers, correct, Glynda?"

"That is correct, Headmaster," the blonde woman stated. "Lockers 1-M through 1-Q have been locked down since the incident occurred."

"Good," Ozpin responded, smiling around the rim of his mug. The man took a long draw from the liquid within the cup even as my breathing returned to its normal pace and my thoughts slowed.

So team JYDE was to be reformed as team EDJY. We were meant to return team RWEBY's weapons, bringing the entire team's arsenal directly to them where they were hiding in this... Liar's Landing place.

I felt conflicted.

On the one hand, I was happy enough where I was now. Jayd was not the greatest leader a team could have asked for and upon my shoulders rested far too much of what should have been his responsibility. Still, they - Jayd, Ye'lo and Dacc - were my team, with all their imperfections included in the deal. And it went without saying that I was not a perfect example of a huntress-in-training too. I was a little too controlling, a little too hard-headed for my own good. A little too serious.

But we were a team. We were safe here. Happy. Content. We might even move up into first place now that team RWEBY was-

I swallowed uneasily.

Now that team RWEBY was out of the picture.

Their faces flashed through my mind again, all five of them. All five, innocent, faces.

_'They don't deserve this.'_

They should have been here, at Beacon, with the rest of their classmates. They should have been safe and sound here too and not running for their lives and doing... who knows what to survive! They never killed anyone and never even tried and now they were paying for it and here I was, hesitating on whether or not I should help them!

_'You're a piece of work, E.'_

E.

It was a new nickname for me. Only Nel and Enten used it. I only allowed those two to use it, frankly. Nel because she picked me up when I was at my lowest, she gave me the determination and the courage to continue on. And Enten...

He was a kindred spirit of sorts. We were both controlling though in drastically different ways. We both wanted the best for our teams. We both worked to make certain our teams were safe, were as strong as they could possibly be.

And, most of all, he helped _my _team. He helped us when he did not have to, when he had nothing to gain by setting up team training sessions with us. He, out of the goodness of his heart, offered to _help_.

That favor _would not _go unpaid.

The sound of a ceramic mug being placed on Ozpin's oaken desk shook me from my thoughts. I came back to the room, my eyes focusing once more on the Headmaster.

Only to find him staring back at me.

"You will find an airship waiting for you in Red Hanger. I understand Ms. Malamig can pilot it?"

The girl next to me jumped. "Uh- I-ah. Yes? ...I mean, yes! I can _totally _pilot them! Daddy made sure I could fly one just in case anything... like, _bad _happened."

"Good," Ozpin smiled. The man then turned to me. "And Ms. Legione, have I made your mission clear?"

"Yes, Headmaster."

"And do you accept?"

My team stirred because the question was directed at _me_. Not Jayd, not the leader of team JYDE.

Me, Legione Estate, leader of team EDJY.

"We do, Headmaster."

The man drew in a slow breath and nodded, once. "Good. You will find the exact location you are needed in the airship's navigation system. Dismissed."

I nodded and, in the silence of the office and with three uncertain pairs of eyes directed at me, turned toward the door.

I would have to explain on the way, after we got their lockers loaded up and the airship running. Time was of the essence, I knew, because the ruin of Mistral Trade Route City was a no-man's land. People did not live there long and I only ever heard about criminals inhabiting the place now.

My hand reached out and grasped the door's handle. This time, without any hesitation, I turned and pushed.

That first step into the hallway was my first step forward as something new. Something more.

It was my first step as leader of team EDJY.

_'Hold on guys,' _I thought. _'We're coming.'_

* * *

**A/N: **Team EDJY is pronounced like 'edgy'. I think I remember seeing another story with the same team name - or one similar - on this site as well... no harm was meant in using the same name. I haven't read the story but as far as I know, that team name is the only similarity mine and theirs share.

**On the religious nut job from last chapter: **I honestly, sincerely had no idea there was a character like that in Dark Souls. I played the game (the second and third ones) long enough to realize I suck at them and would end up spending forty-odd hours trying to get through them just the way I like because I'm a complete and utter video-game-perfectionist! Unfortunately, I don't have the time to do that, not with Witcher 3 nearly done and Fallout 4 in the batter's box. And that's to say nothing of the newest Deus Ex game that hits the shelves later this month!

So, happy (and oddly, hilarious) coincidence. I'll take it as proof that great minds think alike because I've only heard good things about Dark Souls – other than the dying a lot part but… eh. Patience, people!

Till next time!

-Phailen


	41. Chapter 41

_Mistral Swamplands – Ruins of Mistral Trade Route City – Week 19, The Vytal Festival begins in 14 days_

I arrived at my team's temporary stronghold out of breath and very, very interested in the body that I was dragging around behind me. The rubble on the ground scattered noisily but otherwise the building was eerily quiet under the early morning sun. No life appeared to be present but for myself and the religious nutjob I had by the collar of his rough cloak.

But I was used to the barrenness, the emptiness of Mistral Trade Route City; thus, I ignored the silence and the eerie, devastated ruin of a building that I walked through and instead focused my attention on finding a room suitable for an interrogation.

I released a grunt as I heaved the man over the ruins of what once looked to be a fountain in the building's large, open-aired entry way. The opposite side of the atrium featured some intact rooms... I might just get lucky and happen upon a legit meeting room!

The man would need a place to sit, after all. He would also need some kind of restraints.

Because I was not about to let someone that tried to shoot me with his crossbow wander around unrestrained.

That little act of aggression was also the reason I was calling this meeting of minds an 'interrogation' rather than a 'discussion'.

The first room I checked proved to be nothing more than a former ballroom with one of its walls collapsed and open to the ruins themselves. Not suitable at all.

But the second one?

"Good," I muttered to myself, shouldering one of the double doors open wider and dragging the man inside. I could hear my team just entering the building itself behind me - I was closer to our base of operations when I found the man than they were.

Luckily, they had Blake's ears. It would be child's play for the girl to find me, given the racket I was making.

"Alright buddy," I said, dropping the unconscious body - face down - on the ground and casting an eye about the room for a solid-looking chair. There was a ruined meeting table shoved up against the doors but I had dislodged that when I entered the room. A broken television screen hung from the wall on the far side of the room and a-

_'A terminal!' _I noted. It looked largely intact and given how heavy and generally indestructible those things were, that did not surprise me overly much.

_'I'll have to check that out later,' _I thought, making a mental note to do just that as I finally selected the sturdiest chair in the room. It was a high-backed one made of leather, only a few tears marring its surface.

It was just as I reached the chair and discovered its legs entangled in some electrical cords that I heard noise from the atrium.

"He's in there," Blake's voice stated. "In the center one."

"Good job, Blake!" Ruby exclaimed.

I heard footsteps approach at a quick pace but ignored them in favor of getting my chair freed from my newly acquired interrogation bindings. The cords would hold up just fine.

"Enten," my leader called as she entered the room. "En-"

A pause.

"Enten? Why is there a body on the ground?"

I grunted, tugging at a particularly loathsome cord that really, truly wanted to stay with the chair. "Because," I huffed in exertion. "That's where unconscious bodies go, Ruby."

More footsteps approached the doorway and I heard Yang - or at least I thought it was Yang - snort.

Blake was not one for gestures like that and Weiss would not be caught dead snorting.

"Soooooo," Ruby trilled. "_Why _is he unconscious?"

"Because he tried to shoot me with his crossbow."

"Ah. I see... So, what did you do?"

"Me?" I paused, rising to my feet and spinning to face the girl. She was eyeing me with a half grin on her face and, behind her, Yang stood with a full one on display. "I didn't do anything that warranted a crossbow bolt."

"Riiiight," Ruby muttered, glancing down at the body again. "Where're his shoes?"

"Dunno."

"You mean: 'I don't know, they came off in the fight' or..."

I scoffed. "It was hardly a fight. He tried to shoot me, I knocked him out. End of story."

"Okay," Ruby hummed, toeing the body with her shoe. "So he just jumped out of the ruins and started shooting you?"

"Oh," I muttered, the realization that the full story would probably be best washing over me. "No. He jumped out of the ruins and called me a heathen. I called him a wack job buffoon with his head up his ass and _then _he shot at me."

"So eloquent," Weiss muttered, placing a hand over her eyes even as Yang chortled.

Ruby ignored them in favor of staring me down. "_Enten-"_

"Okay, fine. I might have encouraged him," I said as calmly as I could, finally tugging the chair free of the wires. "Look on the bright side: I found our light in the darkness."

"Yeah. And knocked him out!"

"He deserved it."

"Enten- ugh," Ruby growled. "You are _such _a child sometimes!"

"Hardly," I muttered, wheeling the leather object around the table to them. "I did all of this for a reason beyond just knocking out an insane psychopath with a crossbow."

"Uh huh," Ruby grunted, crossing her arms. "And that reason is?"

The chair came to rest just behind the unconscious man on the ground and I found a grin pulling my lips upward. I forced it down before it could show, though. I was not certain if the girls had ever seen anything like what they were about to before... it would be interesting, no doubt.

"Because he's got yellow markings on him, like that Grimm we saw," I said as I knelt down by the body. A glance was tossed at each of them in turn and I found them all a combination of interested and wary - but for Weiss. The damnable girl was on to me.

Oh well.

"See," I intoned, abruptly flipping the body-

"_ENTEN!" _Weiss squealed, her face flushing even as she whirled around. "H-How dare you?! You… You perverted ruffian!"

Yang was laughing so hard she had to support herself by placing a hand on the wall and Blake promptly and rigidly averted her gaze to the wall behind me, a red flush touching her cheeks.

And Ruby? The girl was staring, wide eyed, at the naked man. Her hands were over her mouth and the pupils in her eyes were large, so _large_.

"It's so tiny," she whispered and Yang was immediately sent into a fit of laughter strong enough to bring her to the ground. Ruby yelped and I heard her jaw shut with an audible _click. _She then spun around, the same as Weiss, and crossed her arms.

And then silence settled over us, broken only by my blonde partner's hysterical laughter.

"So," I muttered, pausing a moment to test the waters. When none of them lashed out at me - though Blake _did _refocus on me with an intense glare. I continued: "See what I mean? The lines?"

"You- I don't even know what to say to you!" Weiss hissed, her voice shrill. She tossed a glance at me over her shoulder so I made a show of pulling the man up into the chair.

She immediately turned her head back around with a huff.

"Who'da thought," I said, looking toward Yang. "The great public facade, destroyed by one little di-"

"Enten Melkweg do _not _finish that sentence!"

I shrugged and my blonde partner reciprocated the gesture, still grinning wide enough to split her face in two but no longer hampered by uncontrollable laughter.

"Uh," Ruby began, her voice hesitant. She was still facing away from me, just as Blake was still glaring at me. "So... was it really necessary to undress him?"

"He was naked when he jumped me," I said quickly, shooting Yang a glare when the girl opened her mouth.

She shut it and instead began to eye both her sister and Weiss. A speculative look I recognized appeared on her face - slightly parted lips and an intense stare - and suddenly I pitied RWEBY's R and W.

"W-Well... do we have anything for him to wear?"

"Nope!" I barked as I got to my feet and paced toward where I left all those cords.

"So... we need to look at him like... this?"

"You don't have to look if you don't want to, sis," Yang answered in my stead. It was a good thing too, I was currently gathering up the electrical cords and couldn't exactly be bothered with conversation. "I'll look for you."

"Yang!" Ruby yelped. "Dad- What would dad say?!"

"Who says dad has to know?"

"I second that whole father-not-knowing scenario," I inserted as I wandered back over, my arms full of electrical cords that I was trying to make sense of. Mostly, it was just a tangled mass of wires.

But yeah, in retrospect, I _really _did not want Taiyang to find out I showed his daughters a naked guy in a cloak.

"I _cannot believe _you would do this, Enten Melkweg," Weiss said, having carefully maneuvered herself between the body and myself. "That was _most_ unacceptable! Completely and utterly uncalled for!"

"Oh I think it was very called for," I muttered, tugging at a large orange cord in my bundle.

"Oh," the white haired girl hummed. "And just how might that… that display of debauchery be called for?"

"Display?" I asked, arching an eyebrow in the girl's direction. "I was talking about knocking him out. He shot at me with that crossbow, Weiss. Totally called-"

"You! You insufferable buffoon!"

"Hey now," Yang chided. "That wasn't nice, Weiss. Totally not cool."

The orange cord came loose and, like it was some kind of secret key, the rest of the pile crumbled into separate lengths of electrical wiring too. My impromptu bonds freed, I straightened my spine and released a sigh.

Play time was over, then. Showing them our friendly, neighborhood preacher in the buff was worth a few laughs and a little lightheartedness was definitely a nice change of pace but in the end… In the end, we needed to survive and, sometimes, survival called for vile acts. Acts that would make one uncomfortable, that would cause one discomfort.

Acts like interrogating a potentially innocent – though insane – man.

'_No,' _I thought, a somber expression forming on my face. _'No time for humor now…'_

"I- You're taking _his _side?! Yang-!"

"Weiss," I barked, drawing the girl's infuriated stare back to me. When she noticed the firm line my lips were forming and the furrow to my brow, her eyes narrowed in turn.

"It's a naked body," I stated, softer. She was raised in a way different than I was, with an intellect far more immature than my own. While I might think nothing of nudity… she could legitimately have trouble accepting it. "You'll see more. I suggest you get used to it."

The girl blinked, her eyes wide. "Enten-"

"No," I said, slowly shaking my head. "I'll be the asshole if I need to be. I did all of that earlier to lighten the mood, to help us forget about this…" I gestured helplessly first at the crumbling room we were in and then at the doors, beyond which the ruined city laid. "This… _shit_."

I licked my lips, a sigh escaping them. "Now, Yang, help me get him into the chair."

The blonde girl, now so entirely somber that I almost felt bad for making her laugh earlier, moved and I moved with her, ignoring Blake's stare as I did. The girl was no longer glaring at me but I thought she still might be a little annoyed with me. And to her credit, it _was _a pretty juvenile thing to do. But it also garnered the team some laughs in the process and, eventually, we might even look back at the time the girls meant the insane preacher with some sort of fondness.

"I…" Weiss started, turning to face the cloaked man again. "I suppose I can… look _elsewhere _on his person."

A grunt escaped me as Yang and I finally managed to get the limp body into the chair and seated somewhat normally. Quickly, I grasped the large orange cord and went about tying one of his arms down.

"Sorry, Weiss," I muttered as I worked while my blonde partner held the man still. Ruby was oddly quiet throughout the entire ordeal. "I didn't mean to offend you."

"Well, you did," the girl sniped, her eyes narrowed. But, shortly thereafter, her expression softened – the eyes widened and the brow no longer remained furrowed. "But I suppose you have a point, don't you? I can't expect to encounter situations that measure up to my social expectations anymore, can I? No more manners. No more galas or parties or dress clothes. Just… _this_."

"Hey," Yang hummed softly. "We'll get to see higher society again, Weiss. Just you wait! We'll clear our names and get back to Beacon and-"

"No, we won't, Yang. We won't!" The girl said sharply. "Not with my father in power. So long as he… so long as he lives, we'll always be criminals."

"Yeah?" The blonde asked even as I finished securing one arm and moved to the next. "You think so?"

I reached for another cord but found hands already extending it to me. Blake's hands.

A smile on my face, I accepted the gesture for what it was – an olive branch.

"Thanks," I muttered, garnering myself a smile in return.

The message went unsaid, but it was there: no hard feelings.

"Yes, Yang," Weiss continued, drawing my attention back to the situation at hand. "My father's political clout is far too large to discard out of hand. The best we can hope for is only being labeled criminals in Atlas. Schnee Dust Company owns that country to its very core."

"Well then screw Atlas," Yang said, jostling our prisoner a bit as she did so. I saw the white haired girl's complexion turn even paler when a certain part of the man's anatomy flopped about at the motion.

"Yeah," Ruby said, finally. She turned around fully, her eyes screwed shut. Blindly, she groped around for her partner and eventually found the white haired girl's shoulder. "You'll always have us, Weiss. We'll throw our own parties and make our own society! We'll build our own cities and make sure nobody wants to hurt us!"

A bittersweet smile bloomed on the former heiress' face even as Blake stepped away from our makeshift prison-chair.

"Thank you, Ruby, Yang," Weiss said. "I forget sometimes that, though I may not have-"

"Woah," Ruby gasped, eyeing Yang and I as we finished tying down the man's other arm. "That's like Blake's books!"

I froze and my blonde partner froze along with me. The cord remained half tied in my hands and the man's head fell from Yang's slackened grip.

"Did we hear her right?" I whispered.

"We heard her right," the girl confirmed, her eyes wide.

Slowly, we turned towards Blake.

The cat faunus' eyes were wide and her slit pupils were incredibly tiny. Her ears lay flat against her skull and her mouth was furiously moving but, despite the girl's attempts, no sound escaped her.

"…Blake?" Weiss tried, her voice quiet. "You don't have to hide-"

"It's not true! I don't read- I mean I don't _like_ that kind of stuff!"

"Nu-uh," Ruby harrumphed, crossing her arms. "Your ninja book always talks about tying people up and 'having their ways with them'… whatever that means."

My mouth dropped open at the same time Yang's did, though the blonde's expression was turning into one of pure ecstasy whereas mine remained… well, shocked.

Weiss was doing no better than I was and Blake?

Well, she was blushing now, staring wide eyed at Ruby.

"It does not!" The girl barked, her voice incredibly high pitched.

"Blake…" Yang started. "Blake… look at me. Look- Thank you. Now… is this consensual?"

The cat faunus recoiled and I shoved a fist into my mouth, hiding my face in my sleeve.

"Of course it's consensual!" The girl all but shrieked.

"So you do read about it!" Yang hollered, victorious, as she jabbing an accusing finger in the girl's direction.

"Blake," Ruby said quietly. "There's nothing wrong with liking being tied up and having someone 'have their way with you'. We still love you-"

"I don't! I mean that was just one scene and it's not even a book I read a lot and… and…" The girl looked genuinely upset now.

"Ah… Blake, it's really alright," I started. But before I could get any further, the girl's shadow darted away from her and, a split second later, she was gone.

"Well, shit."

"She's okay," Ruby said easily, drawing the room's attention to her. She had a small smile on her face and her eyes were looking in the direction Blake disappeared. "We talk about 'having our ways with people' a lot when we talk about books."

And just like that, my jaw dropped open again. The cord – which I had only just remembered to keep tying – froze in my hands and Weiss stumbled, nearly falling over despite not moving from her position at all.

And then there was Yang.

"Ruby," the blonde girl started, her eyes narrowed and her voice low. "Did Blakey ever tell you what that means?"

The younger girl blinked. "Uh… she said it's what happens when you really like someone!"

"Did she now?" Yang said slowly.

"Uh-huh," Ruby nodded, grinning now. She caught my eye and, in the split second where Yang glanced after Blake and Weiss covered her face with her palm, winked at me.

My eyes widened further but this time it was for an entirely different reason.

'_Oh… Oh, you brilliant girl.'_

"I hope my crush can have his way with me soon!"

And if that was not the final nail in Blake's coffin, I did not know what else would serve. I could think of nothing that could even come _close _to enraging Yang like that single sentence did.

'_Never mind brilliant. This girl learned from the best. She can only be a master.'_

Yang blinked, returning my attention to her. "Ah… _Ah._ I see…" Then, she turned to me. "Enten. I need a cord please. Blakey likes tying people up and I think that's just perfect for me to have a little… _chat _with her."

I glanced at Ruby – the girl's eyes were darting between myself and Yang, one eyebrow arched – and then refocused my gaze back at her elder sister.

"Yang… I don't think Blake meant any harm-"

"Enten. _Now."_

She leaned over the chair and got in my face and I, rather unwilling to face the girl's wrath in Blake's stead, capitulated.

It was not that I was intimidated… not in so many words. Call it payback. For all the times the cat faunus snuck up on me.

Yeah.

"Uh. Here," I said, extending a length of cord toward the girl.

She took it, her expression morphing wildly until only a grin remained on her face now, one so wide that her eyes narrowed. "Thanks," she chirped, suddenly all smiles again, before she darted out of the meeting room.

There was a beat of silence, in which I only found the mental capacity to shake my head and wonder at Ruby's little mental game, and then:

"Blakey! Here kitty-kitty! I have a _string for you!"_

I clenched my eyes shut and shook my head. "How did it come to this?"

"You showed us a naked body," Weiss sniped, crossing her arms as she still stared resolutely at said body's head, not even an inch lower.

"I hardly think I'm to blame for…" I gestured helplessly at the double doors. "_That."_

"BLAKE! I JUST WANT TO PLAY WITH YOU!"

"Hey," Ruby said quietly, a grin on her face now. "You guys wanna know a secret?"

I threw my hands up in the air. "Sure, Ruby, why not? Let's make today even more crazy – what do you got for us?"

"Go ahead," Weiss encouraged, shaking her head when our leader glanced her direction.

Ruby chortled, then: "I know what 'having your way with someone' means. And that conversation with Blake also never happened."

'_She's learned well. So, so, so well.'_

A snort escaped me, incredulous, even as I screwed my eyes shut. That snort morphed into a chuckle when Weiss emitted a high-pitched whine and it developed into a full-on laughing fit when Weiss responded with a strangled sounding giggle.

And I still hadn't finished tying down that damned second arm!

* * *

_Three hours later_

"The Great Sun provides," the man spat through yellowed teeth, straining against his bonds. "It burns the heathens, the defilers! Speak not to me of Liar's Landing! It is naut but a den of the unworthy! A lair of sin! Where those who fear the sun's light hide away amongst the shadows of the brood witch!"

He trailed off into a growl and spasmed in the chair again, howling when he found his arms steadfastly held. From my position near the front of the room, I could see Ruby's shoulders tense.

"This is useless," Yang whispered at my side, her eyes locked on the man's struggles. "He's just repeating the same stuff over and over."

"He's insane," I muttered back. "If you want to leave, you can – Blake probably needs help keeping watch."

"No," the girl grunted. "No… I need- I should see this."

I hummed but fell silent, a sense of understanding flooding through me. I felt it too, this unease. This uncomfortable feeling at keeping someone captive, at keeping another human being restrained… It was not a feeling I wished to experience often.

Enjoying complete control over another was a heady thing, especially for myself. But I was aware enough to conclude that with that heady feeling came an even more potent feeling of responsibility. This _could not _be allowed to control me, I _would not _lose myself in this power.

But still, it was intoxicating.

"He's proved himself to be dangerous already," I said, more to distract myself than anything.

"You insulted him, Enten."

"Fine, insane then. I'm not ready to let a maniac run around armed with a crossbow."

Yang grunted. "At least we learned Liar's Landing is somewhere underneath the city. He didn't need his crossbow to tell us that."

"He won't be getting his crossbow back any time soon, not if I have anything to say about it…" I muttered. "The bolt he shot was glowing – sort of like it was infused with Aura."

"Or the Great Sun," the blonde mocked, her arms crossed.

"Might be his name for Aura," I noted. "People in these parts don't have much, apparently, if he only wanders around with a crossbow and lives to tell the tale still. Grimm are one thing – no Aura means absolutely no protection – but even the worst hunter in training can shrug off a bolt without sweating."

"Might be his name for mag- for _wrech _too."

My eyes narrowed, considering the thought. We _had _been encountered that ridiculous energy more often lately…

"It's yellow," I muttered, licking my lips. "Yours was green and Emerald's was orange."

"The Grimm's was yellow."

"That… Well, I'm not certain that was _wrech_, Yang. I don't know _what _that was."

The girl gasped. "That Grimm in the forest! When we created the distraction for Ozpin!"

"Ye need not know where the brood witch holds council, _girl!_" The shackled man shouted. "It lay within a haze of poison! Toxic to all but the most unholy! The most base! The most vile!"

I snorted, returning my attention to my partner. "Unholy poison. This man has more than a few screws loose."

"Screws loose?"

"Means he's crazy. Wrong in the head. Mentally-"

"I get it. And yeah, he is. But he's giving us information, crazy or not."

"Mhm," I agreed. "It's what we do with that information that matters. Might be worthwhile asking the locals about a poisonous section of the swamp. We need to know where it is – no way to avoid it otherwise."

"Avoid it?"

"Yes. Why else-"

"Ruby's not gonna let that fly."

"It's none of our business," I argued, my eyes refocusing on my leader even as the girl shrank back when her question enraged the man into another fit of trembling. I saw his yellow lines flash and then dim again. "We don't have anything to do with this 'brood witch' or her poison or her brood… whatever it is."

"Maybe," Yang agreed. "But what if she's hurting people? Innocent people. People like Phoebe."

Thoughts of my younger sister entered my mind then and I released a hum from the back of my throat. I wondered how she was doing? How she was taking the news that her older brother was a criminal? Or, more likely, how she was taking the news that the four girls she idolized became criminals.

"Then they can defend themselves."

The blonde sighed.

"We don't need to get involved here. Not in some backwater town that nobody cares for. This place was forgotten when that canal was built and it may as well stay that way. No glory to be had here. No rewards worth pursuing, unless you value dirt and rubble."

"Sometimes… Sometimes just doing the right thing is all the reason you need."

"Everyone needs a reason to do the right thing, Yang," I countered. "Whether that reason be glory. Fame. A reward. Anything. _Everyone _needs a reason."

"Even Ruby?"

"Even…" I hesitated. The girl grew up on stories of heroes and heroines. She emulated them as best she could and despite her current circumstances she would continue to do so.

But even she needed a reason to act.

"I think so," I said at length, watching my leader lean forward slightly in her conversation with the crazed man. "I think she needs to prove something to herself. That she _can _be a hero."

Yang was silent for a moment, watching, just as I was, her little sister.

"She already is a hero."

"She's got the mindset," I agreed. "I'm just here to make sure she survives the endeavor."

"Doesn't always work out like the stories," Yang nodded. "I trust you."

I decided against responding, instead returning my attention to the conversation at hand. We received a decent amount of information from the man's rambling – Liar's Landing being underground, the poison around the 'brood witch's' lair, even a possible connection between the yellow Grimm here and the one in Vale. But still, actual locations would be nice. Exact spots, places we could use to find Liar's Landing.

"Unhand me, heathens! I'll speak not a word more," the man insisted, struggling again. Once more, the yellow lines flashed and my skin of my fingers tingled. Something like familiarity stirring them from their docile mood at my sides.

'_Was that Aura?'_

Yang shook her head. "I don't like this."

I shook my head, putting the flashing lines from my head for the time being. "How else are we supposed to get information about the area? It's clear he's been here for a while and it's also clear that he knows _something _about this city… It's just a matter of deciphering his babbling."

The girl hummed, tossing a glance at our last teammate where she stood in the doorway of the meeting room. Weiss refused to approach the man but stiffened her upper lip and decided to stay and observe Ruby attempting to get some information out of him, just as we did.

A frown pulled at my lips as the man released more vitriol at my leader.

She volunteered to question the man despite my warnings, saying it was something a leader should do. A burden that she should shoulder. Yang did not like it and neither did I but I was grateful all the same. Speaking with the lunatic was both tiring and frustrating to the extreme.

"You mentioned an artifact-"

"The holy relic is off limits to outsiders! All who know His power know this!"

Yang scoffed. "Well at least we aren't heathens anymore."

"Who knows," I said, chortling. "We still have plenty of time to earn that title again."

The man howled, a wordless shout of frustration, and thrashed about in the chair again. He looked about ready to start foaming at the mouth and the lines on his body flashed-

The hair on my arms stood on end and this time I recognized the feeling not as Aura, but as _wrech_.

I threw myself at Ruby, tackling the girl to the ground just as a yellow flash illuminated the room. I covered my leader as best I could when a crackling sound reached my ears and, a second later, something hit-

A grunt was ruthlessly extracted from my lips when a bludgeoning force impacted my side, lifting me up, off of Ruby and easily tossing me across the room. I hit the far wall hard, hard enough to travel _through _the cement foundations and into the atrium beyond.

Boneless, dazed and blinded, I impacted the ground awkwardly, on my back, and rolled to a stop at the foot of the ruined fountain. Dust and debris from my trip through the air followed dutifully after me and I released a hacking cough when some of it found its way into my throat.

And then, the pain announced its presence with ruthless abandon.

I started to scream but my throat seized and the sound was cut off before it even left my throat. I curled into myself as best I could despite the fact that my back was screaming at me and my side- My side! It burned! It burned like nothing I felt before. Like a fire was running rampant _underneath _my skin and destroying everything it touched without any sign of stopping!

"Shit," I spat, clawing mindlessly at my side even as I drew in a gulp of air with a gasp. Intense as the agony was, I ended up overbalancing myself and falling onto my side-

My vision flashed and whiteness started to gather at the edges of my sight. I thrashed about desperately on the ground, pushing from my mind the racket I was making, until I managed to roll over onto my back and off the wound.

The wound! The- was it even as wound? What was it? Why did it burn! Because ohhh it burned. It burned and it scorched my fingertips when I put them near it-

A shadow appeared over me, black as the void. It possessed a pair of feline ears and, vaguely, I recognized it as familiar.

Then, Blake replaced the shadow, her features twisted into a worried expression. Her eyes were wide and her ears were twitching and her bottom lip was caught between her teeth.

"Enten," she hissed, her hands searching my torso.

I twitched away from her, blindingly swatting away her attempts to grab me, even as the wound flared up again. Immediately, every muscle in my body seized and I decided that I liked getting stabbed through the shoulder more than this! More than this agony! At least with that shoulder wound I could move. I could listen. I could speak.

But this! This was _maddening!_ Even the breath I pulled in desperate gasps hurt and-

The wound flared again and I thrashed about on the ground again, turning over onto my back at a pair of hands' urging. My eyes were screwed shut and my body was still beyond my control but I felt those hands travel over my torso again, knocking away the limb I was using to cover the wound.

"_Shit,"_ Blake hissed under her breath. "What happened? Your entire right side is burned!"

"Yellow flashed," I grunted between clenched teeth. "Crazy man. Explos- Raaaagh! Explosion! Check on- Check-"

"They're fine," the cat faunus said immediately, trying but failing to keep me on my back. She growled and planted a knee across my chest. "I hear them moving around. _You, _on the other hand, are _not _okay!"

"Yeah," I gasped, the best I could do express my agreement in this state. Even now, my side flared up again and my spine arched but Blake's knee! Her knee was in the way and it was keeping me on the ground and I needed to move! I needed to get away from it. It was burning! Scalding!

"Enten," the girl hissed somewhere above me, grabbing at my shirt. "Enten! Stop- Stop struggling!"

A half formed curse spilled from my lips just as I felt the girl's fingers curl around the hem of my shirt and pull-

"_Fuck!" _I roared, jerking up into a sitting position hard enough to throw the girl off of me. My side was on fire again – like another wound was being torn into the old one, inch by _painstaking inch!_ Like someone was shoving a torch into my flesh and grinding it into my ribs and-

A weight placed itself on my lap and I recognized Blake's scent through the fog in my mind even as I felt one of her arms wrap around both my own arm and my neck. Reflexively, my fingers curled into the flesh of her shoulder even as another wave of agony hit me.

I jerked again but the girl held strong. My free arm grasped one of her legs and _squeezed_. Every one of my muscles clenched and my breath froze in my lungs; my jaw dropped open in a soundless scream.

The girl hissed and her leg twitched under my grip but she held strong, preventing me from moving-

"Blake!" Weiss called behind me, her footsteps rapidly approaching. "Blake! Is Enten- _Dust! _What? How-"

"Bandages," the cat faunus barked above me. "Medical supplies! Anything! Find it!"

"Right," the white haired girl responded as one of her glyphs appeared at the upper edge of my vision. I saw her land on it shortly thereafter and vault herself up to the seventh level of the building – nearly one hundred feet up – like it was a walk in the park.

"Wish I could jump that high," I grumbled, half certain that I did not slur any words badly enough to make the sentence unintelligible.

"Don't we all," Blake muttered as she shifted atop me. She was leaning over to inspect my side, underneath the arm that she was not currently trapping within her own.

"Burns," I muttered, either growing used to the agony now or experiencing a lapse in its vicious attack.

"I see that," the cat faunus responded. "You… Your Aura is purple around the wounded area."

"Makes se-" I gasped, jerking once when my side flared again. The involuntary twitch did not get far for Blake held fast.

I stayed completely and utterly frozen for what could have been minutes or seconds or hours. My teeth were clenching and my eyes were screwed shut. My fingers dug into Blake's thigh again and every single muscle in my body coiled and tightened and roared their defiance in the face of this agony!

But the cat faunus held fast.

"Are you alright," she asked, short of breath herself, once my episode passed.

I could only manage a grunt through my gasping, anything more was beyond me.

"Blake," Yang yelled, grunting. "Blake! Did you see- Oh! _Shit!_"

"I sent Weiss to find medical supplies."

"Yeah," the blonde breathed. She was somewhere behind me. "Ruby's out cold but otherwise fine. Me and Weiss were just a little dazed but Enten jumped on Ruby to…"

"He got the worst of it," Blake's voice agreed somewhere above me.

My breathing slowed to the point where I could control it again and I loosened my grip on the cat faunus' leg, earning myself a relieved sigh from the girl in the process.

"Blake," I muttered, my voice scratchy and hoarse. "Let me up."

"No. Not until I know you're done seizing up."

A growl escaped my throat, annoyance flooding my-

Another spike, though smaller than the last ones, caused my body to lock up again. My unrestrained arm, now without Blake's leg to grasp, flew at my side, where my fingers buried themselves-

A howl was abruptly cut off before it could escape me when my jaw snapped shut and, almost immediately, I felt three pairs of hands grasp my arm.

They were pulling at it. Working against my clenched muscles. They would win, I knew. They would pull my arm away from my wound, get my fingers out of the burn.

But I did not want that. I wanted my arm to stay there because, even through the haze that clouded my thoughts and slowed my mind, I could feel something familiar there. I felt a presence in my wound that I recognized almost immediately. An energy that I felt not even two days prior. The same feeling that I now recalled sensing immediately before the attack.

There was _wrech _in my side.

Almost instinctively, I gathered my purple Aura in the wound and focused it around the hated energy. It answered my desperate plea immediately and gladly, surging up and around the _wrech _and gathering it up in its strangling embrace.

It crushed any protests from the foreign energy, my purple Aura. It squelched out any resistance and forced it to bow before my will.

The _wrech _was pulled from my wound when the hands pulled my arm away from my side. I felt the volatile energy leave and I rejoiced. I would have sighed in relief were my every muscle not clenched hard enough from the strain.

The volatile energy was gone now and I had a brief moment to eye the _yellow _energy as it floated in a ball within my purple Aura.

Then, my dazed mind lost control.

Immediately, the yellow energy surged upward, out of the first weakness that appeared in its cage. It hurled itself out of my purple Aura and into the open aired atrium proper. And, as it cleared my Aura, it transformed.

The yellow _wrech_ exploded out of my hands in a column of fire that reached high enough to burn the lobby's roof, some seven floors above us. The intensity of the flames and the heat they emitted brought sweat to my brow immediately and prompted Blake to yelp and take me to the ground with her, sheltering me as best she could from the fiery inferno originating from within my fingers.

And I laughed.

Once my mind returned to me, once I regained my facilities and my jaw unclenched and my thoughts cleared, I immediately burst into a fit of laughter.

Because what else would it be, if not _wrech_? I could not get away from it! It followed me everywhere, this stupid, volatile, annoying energy!

Even as Yang looked up from where she had dived over Ruby's unconscious body. Even as Blake loosened her grapple hold around my neck. Even as my side twanged painfully, now freed of the energy that was lashing out at my flesh and thereby giving me episodes of bone-rattling pain, I laughed.

And the sound echoed around the empty, hollowed-out husk in which we sat.

* * *

**A/N: **What up, guys! Got another chapter for you, featuring our friendly, neighborhood preacher man too! I'm on a straight up roll… Already have maybe a quarter or so of the next written and the entire thing hashed out insofar as the direction I want it to take.

As per usual, drop me a note! I love reading them and it truly helps me pump these out faster. Right now I'll estimate the next chapter's arrival sometime around next Saturday/Sunday.

Aaaaand lastly, I think it's long past time I tick this up to the **M **rating... I know I've been toeing the line for maybe a dozen chapters now so I figure it's better to be safe than sorry.

Till next time.

-Phailen


	42. Chapter 42

_Eight hours later - Mistral Swamplands – Ruins of Mistral Trade Route City – Week 19, The Vytal Festival begins in 14 days_

There was no such thing as a satellite in Remnant.

Whether by some quirk of the planet's atmosphere or by the inability of dust to power space travel or even upper-atmospheric flight, the people of this struggling planet not once broke their chains. Not once did they leave their atmosphere for the massive expanse that lay beyond it. Airships lost all power, projectiles burned up and the precious few rockets made by Remnant's denizens never reached the stars.

It was sad, certainly. This was a people tried and true. Resilient and strong. They resisted the Grimm for centuries of known history and many more beyond that. They survived wars and plagues and disease the likes of which Earth had never known.

And yet, space still eluded them.

"Are you absolutely certain you can move?" Weiss asked, drawing me from my thoughts. She was kneeling next to me, her broken arm cradled against her chest but that did not stop her from leaning over me, eyes darting up and down my body. "That burn is still fresh and even the slightest movement could reopen the regions that were cauterized-"

"Weiss," I muttered, shrugging off the pain in my side with an ease born only of practice. Sparring with the likes of Yang Xiao Long demanded no less. "I've been lying on the ground, doing nothing, for the better part of a day. I can't sleep. I need you guys to help me eat and drink. I've gotten, and rid myself of, the hiccups no less than _five _times now. I am _sick _of staying still."

I stopped speaking long enough to eye the girl from my position on the ground, where I lay on my side. She was next to my makeshift bed – a collection of tarps, drapes, blankets and scraps of clothing that the girls managed to scrounge up – with eyes slightly wider than normally would be. She had her bottom lip between her teeth even as the afternoon sun shone into the husk of a building team RWEBY claimed as our own. The dull grays of the bare, concrete walls around us contrasted nicely with the girl's pure white hair and the sun only seemed to add to its luster; it nearly glowed despite the fact that I knew it had gone without a wash for several days.

My hand found the ground underneath me and I heaved myself up into a sitting position, sending Weiss into a fit. I slapped her hands away as best I could.

"I'm fine," I grunted even as a shudder ran down my spine. Again, the pain was ignored. Instead, I lifted up my Scroll. "I'm- I have more important things to worry about than this burn."

"Enten," Weiss said flatly, her cheeks slightly red and her eyebrows furrowed. She crossed her arms over her chest as best she could. "You received third degree burns up and down your right side. They stretch across half your back and some reached your _bones._ Additionally, that… that ingrate's explosion threw you hard enough to leave bruises all over your torso and _those _have only just healed. You should remain still! I worry that you may have broken bones in addition to the concussion-"

"I'm not concussed, Weiss," I said idly, glancing down at my Scroll. No connectivity, still. That was bad – never had I wished Remnant managed satellite technology more than I did now. Satellites were much, _much _harder to destroy than the Cross Continental Transmit Towers that served in their place. "And those third degree burns are hardly anything more than moderate second degree burns."

The girl's nostrils flared, an indication that meant she was absolutely furious with me, I knew.

Slowly, I put my Scroll down and refocused my attention on her. The device was useless until Ruby and Blake found a CCT Tower anyway. A city the size of Liar's Landing or, rather, Mistral Trade Route City would have required several to function.

They needed only to be activated.

…And possibly repaired.

Nonetheless, once one was back online, I could go on the attack. I could stop sitting idly in these ruins. I could get in touch with Ozpin and Beacon Academy. I could learn of the fallout from Team RWEBY's… _exodus _from Spotlight Citadel.

But, perhaps most importantly, I could place the first iteration of my listener bot disguised as security software on the open market.

I did not have much time to develop it and so it was as barebones as a bug could get. The software would pass only a Scroll's location and basic information about its user back to me through the various appli- _Quill _stores that I would use to distribute it. That, in turn, could be combined with the map I already made of Beacon Academy – an expanded version, of course.

Tracking people across the whole of Remnant would demand no less.

"That you do not have a concussion is a small silver-lining," Weiss said lowly. The tone of her voice indicated either sadness or anger but I knew it was the latter in this case. The girl did not take well to her counsel being ignored. "And those burns are serious enough that you _must _remain still!"

I offered her a smile – it came to me easier than I thought it would. In the sunlight, Weiss looked absolutely radiant and the plain clothing she wore only made her more impressive.

This was no pampered heiress. She was not a spoilt, presumptive girl… not anymore. She was far beyond that, now, she was far more mature, more experienced and more intelligent than she was when Team RWEBY was first formed so many months ago.

The smile widened even as a soothing sense of nostalgia flooded me.

"A small silver lining," I repeated, briefly wondering where I myself first heard the expression, back in my first life. I could not recall. Then: "Earthen idioms have gotten me into trouble before, you know."

I crossed my legs and leaned forward as best I could. My side protested but the bandages my teammates scavenged held and I felt my Aura-infused blood hard at work.

That was still disconcerting to me, that I could _feel _my blood moving. I needed to focus to do it but focus came to me easily, sitting still as I was. I knew now that I could speed up the flow of blood, slow it down or even stop it completely – that last one nearly gave me a seizure when I stumbled upon the ability, the others only caused numbness or pain in the areas I tested it before I decided enough was enough.

Now, though, I urged my blood-turned-Aura-turned-blood to my wounds. The unharmed side of my body remained slightly numb due to the reduced blood flow but together with my control over my life-blood and the natural healing that Aura provided all huntresses and hunters, my wounds were healing prodigiously fast.

"Came out of left field," I continued when Weiss only offered me an arched eyebrow. The girl's expression did not betray any emotion beyond a sense of curiosity, though, so I knew not if she was still cross with me. I would not be able to find out, either. Not unless Weiss decided to show me what she was feeling. "Blake and Ruby took a liking to that one in particular."

"I remember," the girl offered, a small smile pulling at her lips. "Ruby was relentless with her use of that phrase when she learned it. It relates to fieldb- _base_ball. Yes?"

A pleased nod of my head answered her even as an Ursa – the bear-like variety of Grimm - roared in the distance. The bestial sound echoed across the silent, still ruins and I waited until it dissipated completely to continue.

"That's right. I don't know why they liked that one so much but they both inadvertently used it around Headmaster Ozpin."

"Oh," the girl winced, bringing her uninjured arm up to put a hand in front of her mouth. "He is far from the most ideal person to hear such an odd expression, certainly."

I hummed my agreement, glancing down at my Scroll again, only to find that it was still without a connection to the CCT. A sigh escaped me before I could stop it.

"They will find it," Weiss assured me, placing one of her hands on my knee. She offered me a small quirk of her lips when I turned back to her. "Blake was not present for the explosion and Ruby was only slightly dazed, thanks in large part to you. They will discover one of the city's towers and find a way to reactivate it."

I snorted, the action causing the white haired girl's lips to tense.

"I don't like being blind, Weiss," I admitted, clumsily rubbing at my eyes with the hand half-asleep from a lack of blood flow. Annoying, but ultimately necessary. "All my life, I've focused on being one step ahead. I've planned and plotted and schemed and I've largely enjoyed success in my every venture. But… but now-"

"Now," the girl cut across me, a breach of decorum so rare for her that I stopped speaking in my surprise. "Now we will regain our footing. We will recuperate and hide away while we lack strength. We will prepare ourselves for the turmoil yet to come in both Headmaster Ozpin's shadow war with those who seek the Maiden's magic and our own personal vendetta against my father.

"We will begin by restoring CCT connectivity to this area, thereby allowing you to distribute your compromised software. We shall let it percolate through all levels of society, burgeoned by the unexpected attack upon my father's network when your infection in the company's airship is unleashed."

She paused and I took the moment to pick up where she left off, my resolve returning at the matter-of-fact way in which the girl spoke. As though nothing could go wrong.

I knew better but it was encouraging all the same. There was always a chance that something might go wrong – the airship might never be returned to a Schnee network, thereby rendering my attack useless. My security software might never get uploaded to Remnant's Quill stores and Ruby and Blake might not even be able to activate a CCT tower.

So many ifs. So many possibilities.

But Team RWEBY possessed one very large advantage that we would not squander: secrecy.

We were out of the public eye, out here in the ruins of Mistral Trade Route City as we were. It was as Weiss said: we could take as long as we needed to gather our strength so long as we kept ourselves hidden from any huntresses, hunters or any other bounty seekers that chased after us.

And in this vast ruin of a once proud society, there were plenty of places to hide.

"Once the attack is unleashed on Schnee Dust Company and my software is firmly entrenched within Remnant's population, we strike," I muttered, squeezing the hand she placed upon my knee once, before releasing it. "We make people disappear. We blackmail. We bribe. We barter… We gather our allies and we _fight_. We _live._"

Survival, at all costs.

"We fight. We win."

"We will survive," I agreed. "We will win."

"Win what?" Yang's voice asked all of the sudden, to my right.

Weiss, a prominent blush flooding her cheeks, quickly leaned away from me. She covered her mouth, glancing away from our blonde teammate, and cleared her throat.

It was a testament to the girl's control that the redness faded from her expression within seconds.

My lips curled into a half-smile, half-smirk, caught as I was between amusement at the girl's predicament and sympathy with her feelings at large. I also felt no small amount of relief at Yang's interruption for I did not want to deal with the Weiss' feelings now. And she did have designs on me that went beyond friendship, of that I had no doubt; the only problem was that I did not return her affection beyond that of a close friend.

I knew Weiss better than Ruby did, given my leader spent so much of her time at Beacon dealing with her lack of social skills and then navigating the politics of our hierarchy. Easing the white haired girl out of her shell thus fell to me. The public façade that she so often wore was broken down thanks in large part to the conversations I had with her on an almost daily basis. The frequency with which they happened even had our magnanimous leader calling them our 'Deep Freeze Time'.

Were I honest with myself, I cared for Weiss more than I did Blake and almost as much as I cared for Yang and Ruby. The cat faunus, though, was such an independent spirit that she did not need any help or any aid in easing into life at Beacon Academy. So many of the stereotypical problems that plagued teenagers – insecurity over their looks, over their social lives, over their crushes, over their pasts – did not apply to the girl. Aside from her fear over the fact that we would hold her faunus nature against her and her hesitation at revealing her involvement with The White Fang, she was the perfect teammate.

Of course, I did not mean to suggest that _I _was the perfect teammate – an example to look up to of sorts. I had my own ideas on how to further team RWEBY's position and it got us an invitation to the Schnee Gala.

The Schnee Gala, of course, got us marked as criminals.

Perhaps if I did not facilitate our team taking a dominate point lead amongst the first years, Hagel Schnee never would have taken an interest in us beyond the fact that we were paired with his daughter. He might never have invited us to his Spotlight Citadel given the… frostiness between father and daughter brought about by her choice to attend Beacon Academy over Atlas' own huntress school.

Maybe, were I not on Remnant, team… team _RWBY _never would have become criminals.

In the end, I could not know.

"Our wars, Yang," I vocalized, glancing toward the blonde as she sauntered over to us.

Her leg was fully healed now, I noted… Or at least it was healed enough that it did not bother her anymore.

The girl's grin faltered then but she placed herself next to me on my makeshift bed all the same.

"Huh. 'Course we'll win 'em," she said, leaning back on her hands and stretching her legs out in front of her. "We always win. Always will too. Nothing less from the team that beat Pyrrha Nikos."

"I believe that was _my_ doing," I inserted, my twisted, half-formed smirk morphing into an actual smile even as the unease I felt earlier left me. In its place was the same sense of enjoyment I received from all my banter with Yang. "She whooped your ass and didn't even make it look hard."

The blonde scowled amidst Weiss' muffled laughter. The girl punched my shoulder just hard enough for a spike of pain to lance up my side despite the numbness and my grin turned into a grimace.

"Serves you right," Yang muttered, pausing long enough to stick her tongue out at me.

"Yang," Weiss stated, her eyebrows furrowed and her mouth a firm line. "He is injured. You cannot rough house with him like you usually-"

"He's _fine_," the blonde insisted. "Look at him! He had that plotty-schemey face on when I walked into the room and whenever Enten has the energy-"

"My _plotty-what_ face?"

"Plotty-schemey," she informed me in a matter-of-fact manner that I thought she must have learned from Blake. The neutral tone. The incredulous stare – as though I was insane for _not _agreeing with her. It was all there. "You know, that intense look in your eyes… You usually chew on your lip or crack your knuckles while you're doing it."

I glanced at Weiss, an inquisitive eyebrow arched, but the girl only offered me a shrug. Nonplussed, I turned back to Yang.

"You've been spending too much time around Ruby."

The girl's cheeks reddened ever so slightly and I took the rare sight for what it was worth. Yang Xiao Long rarely blushed – such was the confidence she had in herself – and to have driven her to it gave me no small amount of satisfaction.

"Shut up," she grunted, eyeing my grin like it was a personal offense against her honor. "I'm gonna tell Sjev it was you that put mirrors all around our training area."

Unbidden, a bark of laughter escaped me. The third year used ultraviolet light to attack her opponents. Mirrors were her most hated enemy.

And I remembered that day quite clearly too. I had never seen her hair flare such a violent shade of purple before.

"I'm quite certain you were more bubbly than usual that morning," Weiss observed, her tone neutral even as she leveled an unimpressed look at Yang, complete with the arched eyebrows and upturned chin. The former heiress had looking down her nose at people mastered such that it was an art form to witness. "That leads me to believe-"

"If you'll _kindly _remember," Yang said, sitting up and doing her best to duplicate the white haired girl's expression. It was a shoddy imitation but given how Weiss' eyes narrowed, it worked well enough. "That was also the morning I filled Blake's tea cup with kitty litter." She hesitated, but then: "Peasant."

"You- You insufferable mongrel!

Yang scoffed. "Neanderthal!"

"Okay," I interjected, shuffling myself between them as soon as Weiss' expression turned thunderous. I was quite certain that this was the first time her nostrils had flared so much. Idly, I stopped manipulating my blood flow – one arm being half numb made maneuvering myself incredibly difficult, after all. "Yang. _Yang_. What did you want to tell us? You're supposed to be on watch duty…"

The blonde blinked, refocusing her eyes on me even as her scowl faded and the muscles in her face relaxed. She was actually angry! Truly angry… "Oh. Right. I just wanted to let you know I saw your Grimm admirer out in-"

"And you only tell us this _now?_" I demanded of her.

She threw her hands up in front of her face. "He's just sitting there again! And it's not like we can take him without any weapons and your burn and Weiss' broken arm… There's nothing-"

"He could've _moved_," I insisted. "That's the reason we have a _watch_."

The blonde snorted and made to speak again, but Weiss beat her to it.

"Do not bother with explanations, Enten," the former heiress muttered as she spun to her feet from the cross legged position she was in, as fluid as any dancer. "They would be wasted."

I blinked, as surprised at the vitriol in the girl's words as I was to see the legitimate anger in Yang's face earlier.

My blonde partner suffered none of my hesitation though and she flew to her feet to meet the white haired girl face-to-face. "Don't get all high and mighty towards me, princess! You're no better-"

"Quite the contrary, I _am_," Weiss stated, her arms crossed. "You can't even understand the simplest of-"

"You're such an arrogant _twat_!" Yang thundered, stepping forward.

"And you are nothing more than a bumbling _twit!_" Weiss answered, matching the blonde's advance.

"Hey!" I shouted, finally regaining enough sense to push myself to my feet. I went ignored, though – the girls only stepped around me. "Enou-"

"You and your stupid ego! All that self-centeredness wasn't worth anything to _Daddy!_ He still-"

"You ingrate! I see now why your mother left you-"

"_Hey!_" I yelled, fully and completely fed up with… with _whatever _was going on between the two of them. To punctuate my shout, I let loose a blast of Aura from my good hand. Nothing overly strong, but enough to show them that I was _mad._

They both stumbled and turned as one to face me. Furious expressions were etched into every hard line of their faces. Weiss' public façade was long gone and replaced by a deep scowl. Yang's lips were pressed together so tightly that her jaw was visibly tense.

"You both have some kind of nerve," I spat, every sound in every word emphasized as much as I could. "You're gonna pull this shit- _Don't interrupt me! _You're gonna pull this shit, now?! Now! Of all times?!

"You're both huntresses! _Huntresses!_" I hissed, watching as their anger faded, only to be replaced but surly looks of defiance. _Teenagers._ Honestly. "You're both fighting for our lives- _Don't scoff at me! _Whether or not you want to hear it, both of you fight for our team! I fight for us. Ruby fights for us. Blake fights for us. And what are you two doing now? What is this? Are we fighting _each other?!_"

Neither of them were looking me in the eye now, they both found the ground or the decrepit walls around us far more interesting. It was a point of pride for me – that my anger was still enough to intimidate them into this state. Given how long we had fought together and how well we knew each other, I was half certain that the two of them would just laugh me off.

A sigh escaped me. "United we stand. Divided we fall… There's an Earthen idiom for you both to think about. One I hope you never forget! Team RWEBY is on our own out here and if you two don't-" Yang opened her mouth. "_If you two don't _get your acts together and put whatever _that _was behind you… you'll kill us all."

Weiss made to protest and the blonde at her side scoffed.

"You will kill us all," I reiterated, my voice quiet but as strong as I could make it. It appeared it was enough – they remained silent. "We have enemies now. Enemies in powerful places. Enemies that would love to see us ended. And if you don't think for _one second _that infighting would weaken us-"

"You're being-" Yang tried.

"Enough, Yang," I barked. "I don't want to hear your excuses. I don't want to hear your arguments. I'm so _incredibly _disappointed in you both right now that I can scarce stand to be near you."

Weiss' eyes widened ever so slightly and the girl visibly swallowed, her hand twitching upward toward her mouth. The motion stopped before her limb passed her waist, though.

Yang's eyes, contrarily, narrowed. Her mouth dropped open and she visibly recoiled away from me.

I swallowed, wishing for a moment that Ruby was here to deal with this. Infighting should be handled by the team leader, after all. It should be dealt with by the person with the authority to stop it, once and for all.

But Ruby was not here.

And so, I would have to suffice.

"Do you remember what happened to Team JNPR while Jaune had his troubles with Cardin?" I asked them quietly, eyeing them both. "Do you remember how he refused their help? How his teammates tore themselves apart over the situation? How _Ruby _tore herself up over the situation? Do you remember how much damage one single boy managed to cause?"

The blonde's gaze dropped to the floor again and Weiss suddenly found the walls of the empty, abandoned building around us very interesting.

"Anger is a poison," I insisted. "It festers and grows and harms everything and everyone it touches. It tears down bonds and destroys people from the inside out. It does nothing good for anyone. Nothing good for this team. For _us_. Or do I need to remind you both of the time I blew up back when our team was first formed? Back when Ruby and you, Weiss, were fighting?"

Together, they both shook their heads. They still would not look at me and Yang hesitated just a split second longer than Weiss did, but they were quiet now. More introspective, too, if I was judging their expressions correctly.

"I'm going to go find our observer Grimm," I said after a short beat of silence. "Yang, you'll go up to the top floor of this building to cool off. Weiss, you'll be on the bottom floor."

The former heiress had her glyphs to evade her in escaping any roaming Grimm, after all. Better she take the first floor.

The white haired girl herself nodded, once, then turned to stalk off toward the open-aired lobby. Her shoulders were slumped, I noted, but she hopped into the seven story space like it was a hop off of a small ledge all the same. She disappeared from my view quickly.

"Enten-"

"Don't, Yang," I said, shaking my head. I was not quite furious at them for fighting any longer, not since they both appeared to understand why it was such a horrible idea, but I _was _still annoyed with them both. I could not guarantee that I would not say something I regretted later. "Just go."

She opened her mouth but closed it again before any sound escaped her. Eyes downcast, she turned toward the stairwell to begin the eight story journey to the fifteenth floor of the building.

I watched her shuffle away from me and kept my eyes on her until she disappeared through empty doorway that led to the stairs. I waited until her plodding footsteps faded entirely. Until I could no longer hear Weiss shuffling around some seven stories below me.

Then, I sighed.

"Well this went to shit rather quickly, didn't it?" I asked the room at large, idly picking up my Scroll and ambling over toward the direction from which Yang approached earlier. She said she saw the watcher Grimm, the Beowolf that took such a keen interest in my team.

And the watcher must be watched, in turn.

* * *

_Two hours later - Mistral Swamplands – Ruins of Mistral Trade Route City – Week 19, The Vytal Festival begins in 14 days_

My Scroll lay forgotten at my side, that damnable red 'x' still present over the CCT's antenna-like icon on the upper right corner of the screen. Its battery was running dangerously low now as well.

A grimace touched my lips.

I needed my Scroll to stay active, just like I needed Blake's Scroll to stay active. Our two were the only ones to survive the fight against the glowing Grimm. Yang's was cracked and broken and water logged and so was Ruby's. Weiss' screen shattered in the fall that broke her arm and the device refused to turn on since then.

A sigh escaped me as I leant forward, placing my elbows on my knees. Idly, my legs swayed lazily in the breeze that drifted over my perch on the seventh floor of our building. Once upon a time I would have been scared to sit in an empty window so high up, but once upon a time I did not have Aura. Once upon a time, a seven story fall could have killed me. Once upon a time, I was only human.

But now… now, I was anything but.

Now, a fall from seven stories up would only result in a sprain, at the absolute worst.

I pushed those idle thoughts from my mind with a grunt even as I spied the outline of a Nevermore – the carrion, bird-like Grimm – flying lazily through the sky. I saw another fly up to join it from somewhere in the city even as I placed my Scroll next to me on the ledge.

The flying Grimm were too far away to be of any concern to me – a dozen or two blocks at least – and they also appeared to be flying away from me. To the west, where nothing but swamplands lay.

I tracked the bird-like creatures idly until I could no longer see them, a strange feeling overtaking me as I did so. They seemed so peaceful from this distance. Birds only, calming to watch and mesmerizing to observe, with the way their wings steadily beat the air around them and the graceful manner in which they traveled.

It was a pity they were so deadly when up close and personal.

My Scroll buzzed then and I glanced down at it in a hurry, eager to see Blake's picture appear on the screen. A call from her would mean that a CCT tower was functioning again and that would-

But it was not to be.

My shoulders slumped and my breath left me in an explosive sigh when I saw that the device was only alerting me that it possessed a mere 5% of its battery life now.

5% would not be enough. It was not enough to load my bug into as many Quill Stores as I could reach. It was scarcely enough to even answer the call I was anticipating to begin with!

Another long-suffering sigh escaped me even as I returned my gaze to the ruins around me, desperate for something to distract my mind. My Scroll's battery was depressing to dwell upon and the recent… _spat _between Weiss and Yang even more so.

Luckily, fortune smiled upon me in the form of my watcher.

The Beowolf was still there, perched in the wreckage of what could only be Mistral Trade Route City's fabled stadium. The massive building was once a point of pride for the city and it reminded me much of The Coliseum back on Earth, with its arched facades and open aired arena. The building towered over all but the tallest of skyscrapers, standing nearly ten stories in height.

'_Silver Stadium,' _I recalled, my childhood history lessons coming to mind. _'Only the third stadium of its kind to be built after The Vytal Festival's own Amity Colosseum, the floating marvel itself.'_

Now, the once renowned building served only as a home to the Grimm, Team RWEBY's watcher included.

The wolf-like creature was crouched beneath one of the arches on the fourth floor of the Silver Stadium, hunched over and looking so terribly smaller than I knew its full twelve feet of height could. Its eyes tracked me steadfastly and unnervingly, always watching but oh so rarely shifting. The beast had not moved against our team since it figured out that there were four in addition to myself, back when it attacked me before I found that crazy preacher and thereby managed to sense the girls' momentary spike of panic when I was tossed across Spectrum Square.

Idly, I picked at the bandages covering my torso, turning away from the Beowolf as I did so. Dwelling on him would do me just about as much good as would dwelling on Weiss and Yang and my Scroll.

Besides, the cloth was pinching the skin under my arm in a manner that was incredibly irritating.

I was manipulating my blood again and so half of my body was somewhat numb. It made adjusting my bandages somewhat difficult. Still, the itchy feeling permeating from beneath my wrappings pleased me, oddly enough. Irritation could only mean nerve endings and nerve endings meant healing skin. The numbness was a necessary sacrifice and one I would choose to make every time if speeding up the flow of blood to a burn allowed it to fully heal within one day's time.

'_The wonders of Aura,' _I thought, looking out across the cityscape before me. The sky was clear and the sun was well on its way to setting. It wasn't quite twilight yet but it was close. Soon, Ruby and Blake would need to return, whether or not they found a Cross Continental Transmit Tower.

Well, not so much find one but… whether or not they managed to _fix _one.

It was not hard to locate the towers in the ruins of this city, after all. I could see two from my position even now; both of the formerly pristine structures were dirtied and decrepit. One was half collapsed in on itself and the other was only marginally better. Their tall, thin and metallic forms stuck out amidst the ruins even in their dilapidated states.

No, _finding _one was not the difficult part.

Something clattered to the ground beneath me, seven stories down, and I leaned over the edge of my window sill to spy a wooden chair settling on the street corner. Soon after, another chair followed it and a large rug followed that one. Each item was broken or in a state of disrepair. One chair was missing a leg and the other lacked a back rest, the rug possessed a ragged-looking hole in its center.

'_Offensive to Weiss, no doubt,'_ I thought, recalling the time I caught the girl throwing out a pillowcase because Ruby spilt a little coffee on it. That was truly the first time I came to understand how very different my life was compared to her own.

She was an heiress of a globally renowned, incredibly wealthy company. She was used to having the newest, sleekest possessions. The trendiest clothing. The brand name school supplies. The comfiest of chairs and silkiest sheets that Remnant could offer her.

Compared to my own life, wherein I wore hand-me-downs from neighborhood boys and became passably competent at sewing to repair them, hers may as well have been on a different world.

It was no small wonder that she would busy herself with ridding the building of the items that did not meet her standards.

'_Though I don't think anything left in this __**city **__will meet her standards anymore,' _I thought, a fond smile on my lips.

For all her quirks, for all her rich tastes, she was still a precious friend.

My smile fell a moment later, though, when my mind inevitably found its way back to the fight.

"What do you think, Beowolf?" I muttered quietly, returning my gaze to the Grimm crouching beneath one of the Silver Stadium's archways. "Did I do right? Did I handle that fight the way I should have?"

It gave me no answer but its company was oddly comforting to me. This desolate city was silent in an eerie way and so completely empty that it left me apprehensive. So used to seeing people, I found the transition to Liar's Landing jarring. No longer could I hear students idly conversing with one another. No longer could I observe my fellow classmates and our foreign visitors. No longer.

No longer.

Crazy it may be, but I was thankful for the Grimm's presence.

Metal vibrated against concrete suddenly and my eyes widened even as they turned to my Scroll. First they darted up to the antenna near the top of the screen.

'_No red 'x',' _I realized numbly. No red 'x'! That meant-

The Scroll vibrated again and I grasped it quickly, recognizing Blake's face on the screen easily.

"Blake?" I asked once I accepted the call.

But it was not Blake that answered me.

"Enten!" Ruby cheered, the Scroll mere inches from her face. I could only see from her eyebrows to her mouth. "Blake and I found a tower and- I mean, it's pretty easy to find a tower in this place but- anyway! We found a tower and _guess! What! _There's _totally _a metal shop near it! It's all secluded and fenced- I mean the fence is sorta not there anymore but it has an area for one and we could use it as a base of operations like in the movies!"

I blinked, trying in vain to sift through the deluge of words the girl just finished hurling at me. A tower. A metal shop. A fence-that-was-not-a-fence. And a base…

"It _would _be a good idea to settle down somewhere defensible," I said slowly even as the girl nodded.

"Uh huh! And that big building is impressive but it's waaaaay too open and defenseless! It has pretty much every single thing that Professor Port told us doomed the anti-faunus faction in the last war during that one battle."

"The Battle of Fort Castle," Blake said somewhere off the screen. "And that was lost because the human commander forgot the faunus-"

"Had night vision right," Ruby agreed quickly, her face turning away from me for a moment. "But _also _because the humans tried to run back to their crappy base and-"

"Ruby," I said.

The girl turned back to me, eyes wide. "Sorry! I didn't mean to say crappy!"

"Not-" A bark of startled laughter escaped me. "Not that. I only have 3% of my battery life left and I need to know where-"

"Oh!" the girl chirped, pulling the Scroll away from her face for a brief moment. I saw a darkened room lit up intermittently by numerous blinking, glowing lights behind her.

Then Ruby's face was back.

"We're-" She hesitated, biting her bottom lip and averting her eyes. "I'm- uh, I'm not so great with directions…"

"We're south," Blake said from somewhere off screen.

"South!" The girl parroted. "I know this tower is by the metal shop and that has a pretty big storage facility behind it. Like one of the sheds down on Vale's docks? Or in that storage area, where we fought Roman and you got your butt whipped by Neo!"

"Right," I said, my lips quirking upward. "Shouldn't be hard to find… it's good to see you happy again."

The girl offered me a wide grin. "We're making progress! It's just, after we spent so long running and hiding and basically moving around without a plan… it feels like we're finally taking real steps forward!"

I nodded even as the Scroll was moved away from Ruby's face and angled such that Blake could fit her face in on the call as well.

The faunus offered me a small smile, never more than a slight twitch of the lips with her, but I returned it all the same.

"Where is Yang?" She asked. "And Weiss? I would have thought they would come running when they heard Ruby's voice."

Ruby grunted, her eyes widening. "Yeah! What gives?! Little sisters are supposed to be loved!"

"Ahh," I grunted amidst a sigh. One hand came up to rub at my eyes even as I felt my lips curl into a scowl.

"_You're such an arrogant __**twat**__!"_

"_And you are nothing more than a bumbling __**twit**__!"_

"Enten?" Ruby asked. Her mouth was hanging open ever so slightly and her eyes were still wide. So impossibly large.

"They had a… let's call it a spat," I responded, even as I heard another piece of furniture hit the curb below me. "I-"

"What do you mean spat?" My leader asked quickly, sharing a quick glance with Blake. "Did they fight? Like, real fight?"

"_You and your stupid ego! All that self-centeredness wasn't worth anything to __**Daddy**__! He still-"_

"_You ingrate! I see now why your __**mother**__ left you-"_

The scowl twisted into a grimace that I tried – unsuccessfully – to morph into a smile.

"They didn't come to physical blows," I said finally.

"I- what?" Ruby muttered, her eyes darting about my face.

"What did they fight about, Enten?" Blake queried.

"They didn't have-" My mouth moved soundlessly for a brief moment and hesitation once more took over. They _did _have a reason to fight, else they never would have done so in the first place. "I don't know why they were fighting."

My faunus partner and my leader shared another glance. The former was sporting heavily furrowed eyebrows and the latter once more had her bottom lip clenched firmly between her teeth.

"Where are they?" Blake ventured. "Are they… Are they still with you?"

"Oh!" I grunted. "You thought they ran- No. No… they're still here. I just separated them. Sent Weiss to the bottom floor of the building and Yang to the top."

The black haired girl nodded, her eyes closing in relief. "Then you should head-"

Ruby snorted. Her hand quickly came up to cover her mouth and her head then ducked out of the screen.

Blake's eyes – I could only assume – tracked the younger girl, an expression slackened by disbelief on her face, before she turned back to me a moment later.

"You should head over here," she said slowly, glancing once more in the direction I saw Ruby disappear. "I… I- Are you okay?"

My leader, somewhere off screen still, snorted even louder and immediately began coughing.

"Blake?" I asked slowly.

The girl shook her head even as the Scroll swung around. She was moving. "I don't know-"

A high pitched giggle interrupted her, it was more of a cackle than anything and one with which I was very, very familiar.

"She's _laughing?_" I asked, my face now a replica of Blake's own stupefied expression.

Then, the Scroll was seized from the black haired girl's hand and Ruby's face reappeared in the display.

"Enten! Are you saying-" She broke off chortling again but fought the laughter back a moment later. "You sent them to _time-out_!"

And suddenly, I could not help but grin back at the girl.

"I- It's really not-" A snort escaped me at the thought of sending Weiss and Yang, two of the most bull-headed girls I knew, to _time-out, _of all things. An absurd picture of me wagging my finger at them while they hung their heads and sat in opposite corners of a room entered my mind and a true burst of laughter escaped me at the thought.

"You _did _send them to time-out," Blake commented, her face back on the screen. Her lips were twitching.

"That's _soooo _embarrassing!" Ruby cheered. "I _finally _have some dirt on Yang!"

"Ruby," I chided, attempting to banish my smile to look properly stern.

I did not succeed.

She waved me off. "Oh, I _know. _I won't be mean! I swear! But still… you put them in _time-out!_"

"I'm kind of surprised they listened to me," I muttered then, my expression returning to its neutral state as memories of the fight's aftermath washed over me.

On screen, Blake shrugged her shoulders. "It sounds like they needed someone to talk some sense into them. You're good at that, inventor."

_A line of trees was ahead of me. Beside me, the cat faunus perched herself on the bench and hugged her knees to her chest, her chin resting atop them even as her sneaker-clad feet settled themselves on the edge of her seat._

"Maybe," I admitted, the edge of my lips quirking upward again, this time into something of a fond smile. The Scroll in my hand vibrated then and my eyes immediately went to the battery icon.

"My Scroll is about to die," I told them quickly. "I'll get Yang and Weiss and head toward you guys."

"We'll stay here until you get to us," Ruby promised, nodding. Her eyes were narrowed ever so slightly and her jaw tense. "There were some Grimm we had to avoid on the way over here so watch out for them-"

The screen in front of me faded to black, the Scroll's battery finally having given its last bit of power.

But it was enough. I now knew team RWEBY had a working CCT Tower and a metal shop to boot. It sounded like a fairly defensible area – maybe we could even start sleeping a little easier at night.

Another object hit the pavement below me, this one an ornately framed painting that had a gash torn through its center. It was large enough that even from seven stories up, I could tell it was Alrmady Alssulb, sponsor of Pyrrha Nikos and Beacon's fourth year team MNSN. The steel tycoon's face was set into what I thought was a permanent scowl.

"Weiss!" I yelled, putting the painting from my mind and leaning over the edge of my perch. I only needed to wait for a brief few seconds before the white haired girl's head popped out of the building below me. I motioned her up with my hand and, with a confidence that was born only from trust, pushed myself off of my ledge.

Through the air, I fell freely. The ground immediately began to rush up to meet me and the building in front of me passed through my vision in a blur but I coiled my legs underneath my torso, certain that-

A glyph appeared under my feet even as I saw the former Schnee heiress launch herself up at me, aided by a glyph of her own.

I hit the Aura-based sigil somewhere around the fourth floor of the building and pushed off of it with an Aura-empowered leap. The ground rushed rapidly away from me and I soared upward, higher and higher and higher, until I reached the apex of my leap around the eleventh floor of team RWEBY's hideout.

Not human indeed.

A grin grew on my face even as another glyph appeared under my feet and this time, I angled myself toward the top floor of the building. More Aura burst from my legs and my body rocketed upward again, this time easily traveling a mere four stories of height before my feet came to rest on a fifteenth story window sill.

A grunt escaped me when I landed, a little too heavily and with a shiver of pain running down my spine, on that top floor. Immediately, I noticed that one side of my body was still numbed and I stopped manipulating my blood again, satisfied that I was healed enough to allow it to run its normal course throughout my veins.

I heard Weiss' boots land on the floor at the next window down from mine – one that appeared to belong to an entirely different room, in fact, but the dividing wall was no longer there. Instead it lay scattered about on the ground, broken into many tiny pieces of rubble.

"Was that truly necessary?" The white haired girl asked quietly.

"No, but it _was _fun."

She glanced up at me then. "You are happier, now," she ventured slowly. "Did Ruby and Blake repair a tower?"

I nodded even as I cast a glance about the floor in front of me. It was divided up into rooms that were larger than the ones on the floors below but larger rooms to stay in was likely a privilege of staying on the top floor. Still, despite the big rooms, enough dividing walls remained intact to block my vision of most of the floor.

Thus, my blonde partner was nowhere to be seen.

"Yang!" I called, my voice echoing across the empty expanse.

I waited a beat for a response but…

Nothing. Not a single bit of movement and immediately anger entered my mind. If the girl had run off after I _explicitly _told her to stay-

"Enten?" Her voice called back to me then. "Is that you?"

A relieved sigh escaped me even as the tension left my shoulders.

Weiss huffed then, drawing my attention to her. The girl had her nose turned up at me and her arms crossed over her chest.

I shot her an unimpressed look, complete with a single arched eyebrow and a tense jaw.

The white haired girl's shoulders drooped and she immediately averted her eyes. "I am sorry," she muttered. "I only thought it was foolish of you to think she ran off."

"Over here, Yang!" I yelled to the building at large. Then, I turned back to Weiss. "We're speaking of Yang, you know. She exemplifies bullheaded."

"She would not have disobeyed you," the former heiress responded, her voice firm. Her eyes were looking about restlessly, anywhere but in my direction – strange for a girl that always held herself with a sense of calm. She continued, then, even as Yang appeared at the end of a long hallway in front of us.

"She cares for you too much to make you angrier at her still."

My eyes narrowed but Yang reached us then and I was not about to bring that statement up in her presence. Instead, I refocused my thoughts with a single grunt.

We had a tower to find and teammates with whom we needed to regroup. Odd statements and what they meant – and I dreaded finding out what they meant if my hunch was correct – could be dealt with later.

"Ruby and Blake found a workable CCT Tower and repaired the thing enough to get it running," I informed the pair, pushing my thoughts from my mind. Both girls perked up at that. Their heads were suddenly held higher, their shoulders were not so slumped.

It was hope, they were feeling. I could relate to that – I felt it too.

"We're gonna go meet up with them, now," I continued, walking away from the Silver Stadium and the Beowolf who hid within it. That was to the north, after all. "They're in one of the towers to the south. One next to a big warehouse, like the ones in Vale's docks."

Yang's face darkened at the mention and I hesitated for a moment, pausing in the doorway of the room in which we stood. Her kidnapping was still something of a sore subject with the blonde, not because it happened to her, but because she could not stop it from happening to Ruby.

"You okay?" I asked her. "Need a moment?"

She shook her head. "No. No… Sorry, just- had a little flashback is all. Bad thoughts."

I answered her with a nod and a grunt and took a moment to look between her and Weiss. It was in that moment, in the silence left behind wherein I said nothing, that I noticed how tense the air was between the two girls. How their eyes would dart about restlessly and end up on me, but never on each other. How their fists clenched and their jawlines remained tense.

A scowl almost erupted on my face as anger flooded through me.

But then, our resident Beowolf watcher howled.

'_Anger,' _I reminded myself. _'They react to anger. Anger never does anything good for you. Never anything positive. Control it. Snuff it out.'_

And so I did. It went slowly, the rage that flooded my veins, but it left me all the same. And with its absence came awareness. With its absence came a clarity of mind that I welcomed eagerly.

"I'm not pleased about this," I muttered, my voice startlingly loud in the empty, deadened halls of the ruined building. "I'm not happy at all that you two chose _now _of all times to have this spat… But you did."

Neither said anything. Neither looked at the other, either.

I stopped another scowl from appearing on my face.

"Fix this," I said, gesturing between the pair with a hand. Yang's eyes widened slightly but I continued before she could get a word in edgewise. "I'll be down on the ground while you two sort out your problems. We are not leaving this building nor will we group up with our _teammates _while you two are bickering. We will leave once you have this issue sorted out. Not before. I _do not _care if it takes all night. This _will _be solved before we leave."

I waited a beat, turning to each of them to see if they offered me any kind of resistance, but neither did. And so, after another moment of silence, I turned away from them and continued on my way through the building, to its southern side.

"I'll be on the ground," I reminded them, calling back over my shoulder. "Come find me when you're able to work together as members of Team RWEBY should."

'_As members of Team RWEBY should.'_

It was a statement that implied so very much while appearing to be so very little. On the surface, it only suggested that we of Team RWEBY should work together. But underneath that, underneath the literal message, there was another meaning. A subtler meaning. A deeper understanding that we all shared.

We were _better _than those other teams.

Those other teams fought and bickered with one another. Those other teams let themselves become divided, they let conflict fester as teenagers were wont to do, ignoring the problem until it became too big to solve. They let themselves be torn down from the inside, out. They could be manipulated. They could be turned against one another. They were _weak_.

But not Team RWEBY.

We were not those other teams. We bickered, certainly. We would have our fights. It was only human, after all, to disagree with one another.

But what we _would not _do was allow those negative feelings to fester. We did not allow those conflicts to harm us. We solved them. We worked them out. We were a _team _and a team we would stay. Undivided. Unified. _Strong._

A hum escaped me as I reached the other side of the building and I jumped from its fifteenth story without a single sliver of hesitation. The ground was so very far below me but I knew I would survive the fall easily.

My Aura would accept no less. My _team _would accept no less.

Where others hesitated, we of Team RWEBY acted.

I landed first on a half ruined wall hanging half out of the building somewhere around the twelfth floor. Next, my feet found the edge of a window sill on what I counted to be the eighth floor. Finally, I vaulted off of a Grimm's bust carved into the corner of the building's third floor, the Beowolf's snarling visage serving as a platform for me.

And so, my feet hit the ground heavily but I straightened, some fifteen stories lower than I was only seconds ago, completely unharmed. Uninjured. _Strong_.

I allowed a slow breath to escape me.

Team RWEBY would accept no less.

* * *

_30 minutes later - Mistral Swamplands – Ruins of Mistral Trade Route City – Week 19, The Vytal Festival begins in 14 days_

A metallic sound stirred me from my doze.

I stood from my position sitting against the side of our hideout, stretching and urging my muscles into wakefulness as I did so. My eyes cast about in front of me, finding only the empty ruins of buildings and barren streets lit by the twilight glow brought about from the setting sun.

No threats. No enemies. No watchful Grimm.

'_But damned if I didn't wish Blake were here.'_

Her night-vision would be useful, now. The shadows were growing longer, the darkness, more opaque.

I allowed a breath to leave me from my nose and I glanced around the street in front of me one last time. Again, I found nothing but the empty city to keep me company. Quiet streets, absent of all life, Grimm or otherwise.

And then, there was the humming.

It was not a sound that a human could produce. It was far too mechanic, far too familiar to me to ever mistake for something emanated by a living person. I heard it too often at Beacon to misplace, when teams would leave on their missions.

'_That's an airship,' _I realized slowly, my eyes widening.

"_Enten!"_ Weiss' voice, panicked and loud and urgent, echoed across the ruins from above me.

To look up at her would be useless – as dim as the setting sun's light was, there was very little chance I would actually be able to make her figure out against the building's façade. Instead, I only flared my Aura, an unmistakable beacon of brilliant blue in the otherwise dim light suffusing Liar's Landing.

It was approaching, I realized. This airship was approaching us but from where I could not say. It was unlikely that it would come from any direction but west or north. Mistral City proper were it the latter and likely Vale if it were the former.

I could only hope it was the former. Vale meant Ozpin and Ozpin meant aid.

Weiss landed behind me first, her footsteps made soft despite the heavy boots she wore. Yang landed shortly thereafter, her own feet heavier than the white haired girl's despite the fact that she wore only a pair of worn running shoes.

"We're going to find Ruby and Blake," I said at once, my eyes still set on the city's horizon. The sky was dark, now, far too dark to see a lone airship. To make matters worse, it was incredibly cloudy. I turned toward my teammates, my jaw set and my eyes narrowed. "Let the Grimm overrun that airship, wherever it lands. We'll be there to pick up after them."

* * *

**A/N: **So I watched the season four teaser for RWBY (which is set to be released October 22 by the way!) and… I'll be honest, I was not impressed.

…

…

Still here? Good.

It was too flashy for me, honestly. Now, granted, I believe the point of that trailer was to show how much Ruby's control over her Semblance had advanced (because it showed little to no information about season four's story line) and it _did _accomplish that.

But did it have to be so, I don't know, _corny? _One scene in particular, wherein her cloak lengthens to absolutely enormous lengths, when she stabs the big ape Grimm through the chest, was particularly aggravating to me. Cloaks don't do that. They don't lengthen or magically grow in size for any reason. Add to that the fact that her Semblance appears now as though she is more of a moving red ball trailing rose petals and the entire animation effort that went into the teaser left me more than a little jaded about the series as a whole.

That said, this teaser shows us nothing of the story itself. And if there's one thing that RWBY has done right time and time again, it is drawing us in with an interesting story.

So I'm withholding my judgement. The action may be corny and reality-breaking enough to really just put me off of the fight scenes, but if the story is there I'll stay a faithful watcher. They've built up the characters – villains and heroes alike – too much for me to stop now.

Anywho! Tell me what you think, as usual. Not much done in this chapter but it was necessary setup for team EDJY's arrival!

Till next time.

-Phailen


	43. Chapter 43

_One hour later - Mistral Swamplands – Ruins of Mistral Trade Route City – Week 19, The Vytal Festival begins in 14 days_

The loud, staccato reportof Crescent Rose startled me enough to stop me in my tracks. Clumsily, my feet slammed down on the cracked pavement and arrested my forward momentum; the abrupt stop nearly put me on my back when the soles of my boots found some loose rubble on the ground.

Annoying, but in the darkness of the night, I could not see well enough to avoid that rubble. Remnant's moon was far too dim for that and the abandoned city's street lights had long since gone out.

Next to me, I heard Yang stop just as suddenly and loudly as I did. Weiss continued on for another few strides but, once the girl realized neither myself nor our blonde teammate were at her side, halted her momentum with one, single graceful twirl.

What I could see of her expression told me that the white haired girl did not recognize the sound of the gun. Her tired eyes were warily glancing toward the darkened ruins that surrounded us and her slumped shoulders struggled to lift themselves under their own weight.

A frown touched my face. Team RWEBY needed to find sanctuary, whether in these ruins or elsewhere.

And fast.

We desperately needed a place where we could let down our guard. Where we could relax and recuperate. Where we did not need to worry about every single shadow in every single doorway or window that we passed. Where we did not need to keep a wary eye out for any Grimm that snarled or howled or roared during the night. We needed peace of mind, and badly.

Yang releasing a quiet breath at my side drew me from my thoughts and I turned to give her my full attention.

"Did you hear what I heard?" She asked, her eyes wider than normal. The blonde was bouncing from foot to foot and her hair shook vigorously with the movement.

"Gunfire," Weiss agreed, her tone flat. "We do not know who-"

"Of course we do!"

"Don't start," I snapped, eyeing my teammates. Weiss' eyes had narrowed and Yang's lips were turned down into a frown. "We're all tired. We all need food. We all need a peaceful night's sleep. Don't start this now."

They turned away from each other-

_**Boom!**_

Weiss jumped, her expression loosening for the briefest of moments into one of intense fear, before she managed to reign herself in. The public face reformed, slower and less complete than it normally was – I could make out her widened eyes even in the shadowy illumination – but it reformed nonetheless.

'_She'll be alright,' _I decided. _'Still, we need to rest. And soon.'_

I tossed a glance at Yang, finding the blonde girl staring back at me.

"We need to go," she insisted, glancing in the direction of the gunfire.

I nodded, once, wondering for a moment when Weiss and Yang had decided to begin deferring to me. Around the time of their fight, perhaps?

No matter. There were bigger – and louder – things to worry about now. My teammates' disagreements could be dealt with at a later time, once we figured out why my leader's weapon was in Liar's Landing.

And it _was _in Liar's Landing.

Crescent Rose was loud. It was bold. And I recognized its thundering report easily.

"_Watch this!" Ruby crowed, heaving the bulky sniper rifle up onto her shoulder. The gun looked even larger against her stick-thin body than it did on the workbench. She was barely thirteen years old and I sincerely doubted she could withstand that gigantic weapon's recoil._

_And she wanted to add a __**scythe**__ to the thing? Perhaps Beacon Academy favored students with overly large, obnoxious weapons?_

_A scoff very nearly escaped me – just another reason to avoid the place._

"_Be careful," I said at length instead, leaning against a tree outside Signal Academy's campus. I adjusted Aegis' bracer with my free hand – it was digging into the skin around my elbow again. "Brace yourself against-"_

"_Psh," Yang scoffed, crossing her arms under her burgeoning chest. On her wrists, tiny yellow bands rested. "She'll be fine!"_

_I frowned. "That's a big-"_

_**Boom!**_

_I jumped and Yang twitched even as we both heard Ruby hit the dirt. Hard. The blonde immediately rushed by me to go to her sister but, unlike the blonde, I was unlucky enough to be within ten feet of the weapon when it fired._

_My ears were ringing and my heart was pounding and my breath came to me in short gasps._

"_That was…," I started, swallowing as my ears popped. I looked down at Ruby and Yang. I sought out the younger girl's eyes and found the grey pupils easily. "That is a sound I will __**never **__forget."_

_And the girl grinned. "Good! A hero needs a weapon that everyone recognizes! And everyone will remember-"_

"Crescent Rose," Yang stated with a certainty that I felt myself. "That was Crescent Rose. We- It's here!"

My mind began to spin even as my surprise faded. I knew my leader's weapon just as well as her own sister did and that was, beyond any shadow of a doubt, Crescent Rose's report.

But that begged the question: why was it here? And just how did it get to Liar's Landing?

'_The airship,' _my mind realized. _'A trap- No.'_

Before that airship arrived, Crescent Rose _could not _have been here. It was at Beacon with the rest of our weapons when we left for the Schnee Gala and, barring any sort of impossible, precognitive event, no one could have known that Team RWEBY would end up in Liar's Landing before we actually did.

'_And despite what Yang has fervently tried to convince Sjev, fortune tellers do not have any sort of precognitive ability.' _A pause. _'Nor do they care where we land.'_

The only other explanation, then, was the airship.

'_The only other explanation that you __**know of**__,' _my mind needled. But I pushed those thoughts from my head – worrying about unknown variables was an exercise in futility.

Instead, I focused upon what I did know:

'_That airship came from, or at least visited, Beacon Academy.'_

My eyes narrowed even as Yang turned to assure Weiss that it was, in fact, Crescent Rose and not just some other 'obnoxiously loud rifle' we had just heard.

The blonde's voice was a tad bit condescending – something I was certain that Weiss would pick up on – and hearing Yang speak in such a way startled me. For as long as I had known her, she was all sunshine and smiles. She had her moments of frustration, of anger, and I myself had managed to cause my own fair share of those moments… but they always passed quickly. She always returned to her previous, almost bubbly self within a few short hours.

But this was different.

Gone was the girl that I remembered from our martial arts classes, the one that would sit with me every session with a conversation on her mind and words on her lips despite all of my protests. Gone was the girl that I could poke fun at without worrying about hurting her feelings.

She was not here and I did not like that. I did not like that one, single bit.

Were I honest with myself, I blamed Weiss more than I did Yang for the fight simply because of how much the blonde's behavior was affected. On the flip side, the white haired girl's demeanor was left largely unchanged.

'_The airship,' _I reminded myself, only then realizing the scowl on my face for what it was. _'Bigger problems. Worry over Yang later.'_

Anyone who hunted Team RWEBY for a bounty would not have a reason to bring our weapons to us, and that was assuming they could get permission from Ozpin to remove them from Beacon in the first place. They would not know that Yang and I could recognize Crescent Rose by her very sound alone. They would not know they could use that as bait for us. They would not know that firing that weapon into the air would draw Team RWEBY to them like moths to a flame.

No, these were no bounty hunters. Too many coincidences, too much airship did not carry people who wished to lure us into a trap. It did not carry people of whom Headmaster Ozpin did not approve. The only way they could have gotten Crescent Rose was by receiving that man's approval and unless the man had decided to betray us, he would only give his approval to those willing to help us.

"They're friends," I said abruptly, silencing Yang in the middle of her sentence. Both she and Weiss turned to look at me but it was the latter that spoke.

"How can you know that?" The white haired girl asked, a biting edge to her voice that I recognized as her frustration. "I may not be able to place the sound, but I think it reasonable to assume that Ruby would know what her weapon sounds like. If she is using it on the people in the airship…"

An uneasy grumble escaped my throat. She brought up a valid point but one that I already considered – anyone on that airship would have to go through Ozpin to get those weapons and Beacon Academy's headmaster would not let hostiles come after us.

An explanation would take time, though. Time that we might not have.

After all, I was absolutely certain that Crescent Rose was brought in on that airship by a friendly party. A friendly party that – like those theoretical hostiles – could not know how three-fifths of team RWEBY could place Crescent Rose's sound instinctively. It followed then that _Ruby _would have been the one to fire it.

Because she _did _know that Yang and I would recognize it.

…Or because she needed to use it. To fight off the Grimm that were likely drawn by the noise of the airship.

'_They are being attacked.'_

"Trust me," I pleaded. "I do not know who brought Crescent Rose here, but I _know _that they are friendly."

The girl hesitated for a brief moment but in the face of both my own and Yang's insistence, she relented.

"Very well," she said after a long pause. "If the two of you are certain that a single gunshot means Crescent Rose is in the city… Let us go and see these _friends._"

Yang launched herself down the nearest abandoned street without any hesitation, toward the direction we heard Crescent Rose. She was never one to think through her actions, not where her sister or her friends were concerned. That she would lead the charge was expected.

Welcomed, even.

Aside from myself, Yang was easily the most durable member of Team RWEBY. In fact, without Ultimatum to protect myself, she could probably give me a run for my money, perhaps even outlast me. She had more raw Aura than I did and even though mine was generally more resilient, I was not quite certain who would take more punishment before keeling over. Add to that the fact that her Semblance made her incredibly dangerous the more at a disadvantage she was and she might just be able to take more damage than I could.

Of course, that was not counting my blood Aura.

The purple energy was ludicrously strong and capable of things that I never could have even imagined in my wildest dreams. Containing this _wrech, _for one. I was eager to test it out, to see just how much force it could withstand compared to my normal, blue Aura, but that could wait.

For now, we needed to figure out who brought Crescent Rose into the ruins of Mistral Trade Route City. Into Liar's Landing.

And, if my hunch was correct, how Ruby came to possess her weapon again.

I turned to follow Yang even as Weiss moved to do the same thing beside me. My blonde partner was almost too far ahead of us to see, now, due to the lack of street lights to illuminate the ruined streets. The all-encompassing darkness caught me off guard when I first experienced it, back in our first day in the ruins, when Qrow kept us in that safe house. It was completely and utterly opaque. Solid in a way that I did not know darkness could be.

Ruined buildings flashed by, each of them filled with darkened alcoves and long shadows. The husks of vehicles jumped out at me from beyond my vision's limits as I came upon them, each one serving as a new hiding place for enemies to rest. Even new streets surprised me – I could not see intersections until I actually _entered _them.

_**Boom!**_

Gooseflesh immediately ran up my arms and I pushed my thoughts from my mind, focusing instead on the situation at hand. The lack of light at night would have to be the very first thing we attacked once Team RWEBY had a base but for now there were more important things for me to worry over.

Like who, exactly, was on that airship.

'_Taiyang?' _I wondered. _'It can't be Qrow, he's already here. A team from Beacon? CFVY? No. No… Adel hates my guts far too much to stick her neck out for Team RWEBY.'_

Buildings rushed by us in a blur. Yang was still pumping her legs hard in front of Weiss and I but with my Aura-enhanced leaps and the former heiress' glyphs, we were both gaining on her easily.

'_Ironwood? He and Ozpin appeared to be allies… But Schnee may as well control Atlas entirely and thereby might just control Ironwood. Or at least be able to exert enough influence to shoehorn the man into doing what he wants. He would not allow our weapons to be delivered to us.'_

A glyph appeared under Yang's feet and a momentary feeling of relief flooded me at the sight. I knew Weiss and the blonde were still at odds after their fight but at the very least, they were able to cooperate when it mattered. That was all I could ask of them for the time being.

'_It couldn't have been Ozpin or Goodwitch or any one of the other professors. Their absence would not have gone unnoticed and pissing Schnee off before the tournament would not be wise… It must have been a team then.'_

But who? The only teams I could think of that would be willing to aid us were Teams JYDE and perhaps Team CRDL. Though that last one was a stretch… I was, at best, a useful acquaintance to the mean-spirited leader. Quite frankly, that was the way I preferred it.

'_Unless Sjev and UHNS… No. She doesn't lead her team and Kristall has no drive whatsoever. He wouldn't have cared one whit if we disappeared.'_

It was possible that Ozpin might have assigned an unknown team to a mission here… But how would he explain wanting them to take the weapons of a shamed team with them? What reason could he give them? And even further, how would he even begin to convince said theoretical team to hand those weapons over to us?

We were, after all, guilty of attempted mass murder as far as the world was concerned.

"It's Team JYDE," I said aloud. "The airship came from Beacon. Ozpin needed a team willing to aid us. Team JYDE is in the ruins!"

Yang scoffed even as she kept up sprinting headlong down the abandoned street, dodging collapsed walls and ruined vehicles as she did so. As she vaulted over one van in particular that looked as though it had its entire front end torn off, she glanced back at me. "Looks like your gambit paid off then, huh?"

"Indeed," I muttered, recalling the conversation I had with the very same team. The one wherein I offered them joint training sessions. It had been a spur of the moment decision, one that carried with it little risk for Team RWEBY and a great potential for reward. "It looks like it has."

They received training with the best first year team at Beacon Academy. In return, we received an ally.

An ally willing to shirk the law for us.

"Indeed it has."

* * *

_Five minutes later - Mistral Swamplands – Ruins of Mistral Trade Route City – Week 19, The Vytal Festival begins in 14 days_

Weiss stopped abruptly in front of me.

I grunted, surprised, and slammed my feet down onto the darkened pavement. A shriek of metal reached my ears then and I suddenly found myself on my back, the street sign I landed on flying further down the road and clanging metallically off a ruined building somewhere in the darkness ahead. My elbows hit the cracked, ruined pavement first and the shock of the fall reverberated powerfully up my spine, leaving me dazed and on my back.

A face appeared over me. The fact that I could actually see the face – Weiss' – and recognize her features led me to realize that there was light nearby.

"Sorry," the white haired girl said shortly, offering me her hand. I accepted the gesture and came back to my feet even as Yang took off down the street the former heiress had stopped at.

"No worries," I responded just as shortly, eyeing her face for a moment. Her eyes were just a little wider than normal so I offered her a grin. "My wounds are all healed up – no more burns to worry about, the Grimm like that, yanno?"

She quirked her lips upward at that and nodded her head, once. "Come," she said, glancing toward the end of the street. "I can see light ahead."

Indeed, there was light over a pile of rubble at the end of the street. What once was the façade of a large building blocked my view of an open-aired courtyard beyond it. Shouts echoed up the street and reached my ears from behind the barrier. Yelling. Roaring. Growling.

_**Boom!**_

And Crescent Rose.

Weiss took off down the street, gliding forward in that graceful manner of hers. The glyphs she used to power the motion invisible to the naked eye due to the familiarity in which she moved.

She quickly outpaced me.

The rubble blocking my view of the courtyard was perhaps three blocks ahead of me and Yang was just reaching it now. The sounds of fighting that echoed from beyond it were loud. Compared to the utter silence that suffocated the rest of Liar's Landing, the sounds of battle were jarring in their dissimilarities.

Weiss hopped into the air and landed upon another glyph just in front of the rubble. Her entire body coiled, folding in on itself in a way that reminded me just how petite she was, and she launched herself a good distance into the clearing beyond. It would have to be a large expanse if an airship landed-

A _growl _burst from the confines of a dilapidated storefront to my right.

The hair on the back of my neck rose and muscles coiled. My feet arrested my momentum immediately and I twisted reflexively to face the shop, my arms up in front of my torso.

The entire motion took me only a split second to execute, powered by battle-learned habit as it was.

But there was nothing there.

I saw a brick façade with shattered windows. The sidewalk in front of it was pocked and cracked and ruined and a sign advertising the sale of dust hung limply above the empty doorway. Beyond that doorway lay only shadowy darkness, too obscuring for me to make out even the shapes of counters and shelves.

A snort escaped me and I turned back to the clearing, only then noticing that Weiss and Yang were nowhere to be-

My eyes widened and I whipped back around to the storefront just in time to see something _big _move inside of it.

'_Ambush!' _my mind howled.

I sucked in a breath to yell, to alert my team, to try and shout over the sounds of battle a mere block away.

The darkness moved, yielding to the form of a Beowolf. The shadows slid away from its white-armored bulk and its red markings were revealed one by one as it slunk out from behind what must have been a counter of some kind.

My mouth opened and I yelled wordlessly at the very same moment the damnable Beowolf, my very own watcher-Grimm, howled.

My voice – so much smaller, so very insignificant in the face of this monster's own – was drowned out effortlessly.

Instead, the night only heard the blood-curdling howl of a twelve foot abomination.

And then, it reached me.

Its paw came swinging at my head and I ducked under the telegraphed move easily. Battle-honed reflexes allowed me a quick step forward and suddenly, I was inches from its torso. Without any hesitation, I drove my shoulder into its midsection, Aura powering my charge.

It snarled when it was forced backward and its paws grasped at me, missing my skin by mere inches and tearing into my shirt instead. The garment was torn to ribbons as I retreated. The beast wasted no time in flinging the useless piece of clothing away and with another snarl, it lunged at me-

I rolled away from the reckless attack, farther down the street, and returned to my feet a brief moment later. The Watcher was between me and the clearing now.

'_Smart bastard,' _I admitted, bringing my arms up again even as a scowl took its place on my lips.

It howled again and the bloodcurdling sound, ear-ringing loud as it was, was still hard to hear amidst the cacophony behind it.

I tensed when it lunged again, my foot finding a piece of rubble the size of my head on the ground. I launched it forward and sent the piece of stone flying at the beast. My makeshift projectile hit with enough force to knock the thing off balance.

A wide grin on my lips now, I threw myself forward with an Aura-enhanced leap, passed the Grimm's flailing claws and snarling teeth and-

The Grimm haphazardly tossed its _body_ at me as I was about to clear it and all of its weight impacted my side. My breath was forced from my lungs and I was sent sprawling toward the side of the street. My shoulder broke my fall and a hiss escaped me when the bare skin there met pavement with enough force to render even my Aura useless.

Still, I pushed myself to my feet just as the Beowolf regained its own.

A Beowolf smart enough to utilize non-lethal attacks to simply keep its prey contained, no less. Never before had I seen a Grimm able to strategize at this level.

"I haven't given you enough credit, Watcher," I muttered, eyeing the beast as it carefully found its footing a little farther down the street. Still, it was careful to place itself between me and the clearing beyond it.

It had little patience for words – or my attempts to stall – for it lunged at me, again.

And this time, it held its claws closer to its body, instead of splaying them out at its sides.

That meant no more kicking rocks.

A short bark of laughter escaped me even as I yielded to the bigger creature, hopping backward when it landed on all fours in front of me. Aura exploded from my legs shortly thereafter and I propelled myself up to the second story of the building at our sides.

Fighting the Watcher without Ultimatum was an uphill battle, after all.

And time was most assuredly on _my _side.

I landed in a hallway through a half collapsed wall, shards of glass and ruined stone crunching under my boots. Without pause, Iturned to my right, toward the clearing. Toward the light and my team and Ultimatum.

My legs pounded on the floor and adrenaline flooded me as I flew forward down the darkened hallway. A small window – worryingly small, in fact - passed by on my right and I heard the Beowolf down in the street snarling still. A darkened doorway flew by on my left and a staircase leading upward was nothing but a blur-

Out of the darkness came a wall ahead of me. Solid-looking and largely undamaged.

I skidded to a half in front of it with a spat curse even as I heard, more than saw, the Watcher shoulder through a window to my right. All twelve feet of its bulk forced its way through the protesting frame scarcely large enough to fit even _me_ and wood cracked when it finally succeeded in entering-

More Aura exploded from my feet and I turned on my heel, returning to the staircase I saw.

I reached it easily and hesitated for a brief moment at the emptiness in front of me. I had absolutely no way of knowing if it was whole or if half of it was just missing. I could very well launch myself up and find nothing but empty air under my feet when I did so.

A snarl, deep and throaty, echoed down the hall behind me and I saw the Watcher barrel out of the darkness in the corner of my eye.

A frown touched my lips. The windows were too small for me to fit through easily – the damnable thing would catch me before I could escape to the streets. Going back down the hallway was out of the question, too. In such an enclosed space, I was fairly certain that this Beowolf could out-pace me.

Never mind the fact that going back down the hallway led me away from my team.

'_Staircase it is, then.'_

I flew up the steps easily, hearing the Watcher behind me as it collided into a wall when the stairs made a one-hundred and eighty degree turn. The pounding of its feet easily reverberated through the floorboards and up to me. Wood creaked horribly even as gunfire and roars snaked into the building from the streets outside.

The stairs ended abruptly in front of me and the third floor of the building greeted me with a hallway. I could see up and down its length, made possible by the light illuminating the tiny windows along its length. Light that was being produced by the airship, no doubt.

I released a blast of Aura from my right hand without hesitation. It impacted the window in front of me with a force strong enough that dust and debris was made to fall from the ceiling.

But the opening – and the wall around it - held.

Another curse left my lips and I turned right just as the Watcher burst onto the third floor of the building. It stumbled with its momentum but I ignored the creature's struggles, focusing instead on sprinting down the hallway. My legs pumped and my heart pounded with adrenaline. Shadowed doorways flew by me on my right and windows passed by me on my left. To my dismay, I saw no more collapsed walls leading outside. Growling soon followed close behind me and-

A wall jumped out at me and I turned right, the only direction I could see, deeper into the building and away from the irritably small windows.

'_Never would've jumped in this stupid place if I knew it was a damn prison!'_

This was quickly turning into a bad idea. The section of wall I tried to break down was too strong. The windows were too small to vault out of in one smooth motion.

And to make matters worse, the Grimm was closing in on me again. I could hear its enraged snarls and its ground-shaking footfalls and its claws scraping the walls.

Another wall flew at me out of the darkness and I slammed my feet down-

Something shifted under my right foot and my eyes widened even as I fell on my side-

'_Up. Up! UP!' _My mind chanted even as I threw myself down this new hallway. In the darkness, I quickly lost track of what direction I was running. All I knew was that I could still hear my teammates fighting. I could still hear the Grimm outside roaring.

The light from the clearing, unfortunately, was absent now.

Behind me, the Watcher impacted the wall I fell in front of heavily and with an enraged howl on its lips. The beast was finding it just as hard to see as I was, apparently.

A small silver lining.

My eyes narrowed and I turned forward again just in time to spot a wall- No! A door in front of me, swinging idly on its hinges-

I covered my face with an arm and powered through the wooden barrier, shattering it and barreling headlong into the darkness in front of me.

And then, I was falling.

My eyes widened when my feet met nothing but air and I instinctively began to curl myself up. The wind howled about my ears and a weightless feeling took hold of me. My mind registered the sounds of fighting once more and they were much, much louder now. Shadowed facades of buildings flashed in front of my eyes and I realized with a start that I was outside again!

'_The night sky,' _I realized numbly.

That meant I had three stories to fall.

Child's play.

My lips formed a thin line and I threw my feet out the second I saw the ground appear before me. It welcomed me readily and I impacted it heavily, throwing myself into a roll to finish the fall.

Wood cracked and I threw my vision upward, toward the shattered doorway I flew out of not seconds before.

Nothing.

My eyes narrowed – the building was still cloaked in darkness and flooded with shadows and dark corners, but I expected to see the Watcher following me. Looking down at me. Something!

Wood cracked again and a chill ran up my spine when I realized it was the _ground _that was making that sound, not the doorway.

My breath froze in my lungs and I stood from my crouch slowly, my hands thrown out at my sides. My eyes found the ground easily enough and, sure enough, a messy assortment of wooden boards were supporting me.

Not the ground. Not dirt or cement or pavement.

Wood.

Badly decaying, rotten wood, no less.

_**Boom!**_

I swallowed heavily and shifted one of my feet forward, a growl inadvertently escaping me when the wood underneath my other foot sagged forebodingly. I finished the motion, though, and my luck – just like the wood – held.

"Okay," I muttered, still distinctly aware of the fact that the Watcher was nowhere to be seen. That unnerved me more than the fact that I was standing on rotten wood, quite frankly. The Grimm's intelligence made it far, far more dangerous than some shaky repair job.

'_Where's Weiss' when you need her,' _I lamented even as I shuffled farther toward the street. The wood wavered dangerously underneath me but I needed to get back to that clearing as quickly as I could, long before that damnable Beowolf decided to show its face again.

If only I could risk using my Aura-empowered leaps here.

But if this wood threatened to give out when I shifted my weight to one foot then there was absolutely no way it could stand one of my-

A growl somewhere above me attracted my attention.

My eyes narrowed, trying in vain to focus upon the doorway from which I – inadvertently – jumped.

"What's up, Watcher?" I muttered, easily finding the angry, red lines of the beast's armored form. Unconsciously, I crouched lower to the ground. "Where've you been, bud?"

It snarled again, leaning forward on its haunches and eyeing me from its position. It was a frightening sight, leaning out of the darkness like that. All wicked claws and sharp fangs and glowing eyes.

"I don't think you wanna do that, bud," I called up to it, a little louder as I shuffled closer to the building again. The wood underneath me wavered again – _literally _wavered underneath me - threateningly but, thankfully, it held. "I've been eating too much lately. Dunno if this wood can stand both of us…"

It roared and coiled its muscles visibly. It reared back-

A screech pierced the night, loud and _close_ and suddenly a dark shape passed over me. It was big. Very, very big and loud and I heard wings flapping for a brief instant before the shape – _'Nevermore,'_ my mind noted – passed over the Watcher and I completely. It disappeared over the edge of the Grimm's building, toward the clearing where my team was fighting, and I thought I heard frantic shouting answer its arrival.

But yelling was not the only thing that answered the massive avian's entrance into the fight.

A purple crescent of energy lanced out of the darkness and I saw it only for a brief instant before it impacted the side of the building I was just running through. The structure grumbled threateningly and I heard small bits of rubble shake loose from its form, landing about me on the wood.

'_Shit!'_

The wood cracked and complained under the debris and-

Another flash of purple. Another crescent, courtesy of Blake Belladonna, impacted the building. The Watcher-Grimm was gone now and the decrepit structure as a whole was groaning-

'_Stupid Nevermore! Stupid Blake!' _I ranted even as I pushed off the ground amidst the shaking of the building in front of me.

Wood cracked and creaked. Aura left my feet.

And my leg sank through the rotten boards.

"Fuck!" I swore, twisting around to yank the limb free. It came away from its prison easily, weak as the wood was, and I jumped to my feet again, ignoring the protesting ground underneath-

Another purple crescent of energy impacted the building and, this time, it was enough to bring down the structure completely. With a series of loud snaps and groans, the entire thing wobbled and began to fall.

_Toward _me.

Because even in almost-complete darkness, I could tell that the damnable thing was about to fall right on top of my head.

Intimately aware that I had mere seconds to _move_, I pumped Aura into my legs again. Either the wood would hold or it would break. I had no choice, not now. I was out of time and out of options.

In the end, the wood broke.

It crumbled under me as soon as I released the Aura from my feet and a weightless feeling immediately took hold of me even as I saw the starry sky begin to grow farther and farther away from me. Darkness swallowed me up and the building soon loomed over my hole, blocking out my view of the sky in its collapse. Broken wooden boards rained down around me and bits of stone soon joined them.

Down, I fell. Farther and farther into the ground. Farther and farther away from the light.

Until my back hit something solid and my vision faded.

* * *

_An unknown amount of time later - Mistral Swamplands – Ruins of Mistral Trade Route City – Week 19, The Vytal Festival begins in 14 days_

It was a struggle to regain my rational mind as I lay there in the darkness.

My team had been put through test after test, trial after trial the likes of which not even professional huntresses or hunters could stand, this I knew. Beacon Academy regaled us with stories of those teams that broke or splintered or fell apart because of infighting or exceptional danger. We were told of the dangers lurking in the outside world. Of the threats that lay in wait beyond Vale's walls. We were warned how we might be tested like those who came before us.

These stories were lessons and warnings in equal measure.

They instilled in Beacon students a sense of the absolute worst they might face out in the big, bad world. They laid bare the importance of your team and hammered home the concept of teamwork above all else time after time after time again.

We heard of teams that broke down after one of their members died. Team JNPR looked uneasy after a story was shared of a team that fell apart after one of their number was captured and used against them. Ruby took the tale of a team that faltered and withered due to bad leadership particularly hard.

But not one of those stories or accounts ever described a team blamed for mass murder.

Never before had a team run to a dead city for _refuge_. Never had huntresses and hunters run _away _from civilized society and into the oh-so-welcoming arms of the Grimm for their own thrice damned safety.

Just Team RWEBY.

The stress of our situation showed in all of us. In the fight between Weiss and Yang. In Blake's breakdown against the glowing Grimm. In my absentmindedness and Ruby's shortened temper.

We were tired. Not just physically, but mentally as well.

_'But we'll pull through. We'll **always **pull through.'_

And then, those stories that were told to wide-eyed Beacon Academy students would be about _us_.

We would be the standard to which they lived up to. Ours would be the long shadows that they struggled to step out of. We would be the paragons. The champions. The absolute best of the best.

The strongest of the strong. Unbroken. Unbending and unyielding!

_'This will **not **break us!'_

My eyes opened. The darkness around me did not know it yet, but it was simply the next obstacle that I would break down and surpass.

Team RWEBY would _survive._

* * *

**A/N: **I'll admit, the building scene was shaky for me. I wanted to use it to display just how dark and hard to navigate Liar's Landing is for Team RWEBY. I can't quite place what I don't like about it but Enten acted in character and it even delivered him into the sewers!

So it served its purpose in the end.

My second note is something that I hope all of you will enjoy: I'll be answering reviews within my chapters again. I miss the interaction with my readers too much to go without it and I've found that it actually helps me collect my thoughts. Responding to your questions/comments gives me another chance to rationalize my thought processes with regard to the story's plot. Mutually beneficial for all of us!

**Azrael-Von-Gruber: **Romance is being done on a go-with-the-flow basis right now. Nothing is certain but I've written myself toward either Yang or Weiss so far... We'll see! And your French is far, far better than mine. Thanks for your interest!

**Grabblers: **Your review made me laugh – thanks for leaving it!

**Infadinityfollower: **Downplaying Enten is something I struggle to find a nice balance with. I don't want to fall into the trope of making the overpowered OC that essentially makes the rest of the team useless. But I also don't want to make him a Jaune-level liability. If you feel he's underpowered though, I hope you stick around for the next two-three chapters. I have plans for his blood Aura… great plans… Thanks for your interest!

**Hi im John: **That little W-Y spat was a mixture of irritability, strung-out nerves and feelings boiling over. I suppose you could say that RWEBY is at their worst right now – something that will hopefully be turning around soon! Thanks for your review!

**RandomGuy: **I thought Shrek was love and life?

**Some Random Guy: **Do you know the above reviewer? To your point of Yang's feelings coming out of left field – remember that the PoV character in this story has more insight into Weiss' character than he does Yang's. Much, much more insight. Yang has always been a mystery to him, on another level of social butterfly-ness entirely, whereas Weiss is someone that he understands very well. He helped her work through her personal demons, he knows what makes her tick and even manages to see through her public façade at some point. If Enten could read Yang that well then her involvement in that spat might not have been so surprising – even in this chapter, he remains unsettled by it. We'll have to see how that'll affect the Yang-Enten dynamic in future chapters…

As for the Grimm flying west out over the swamp – Beacon Academy is technically west of Liar's Landing. Hint-hint-nudge-nudge-wink-wink. Thanks for your review – wall of text or not!

**Riero: **I may have taken Weiss' tendency for more eloquent speech too far in that argument between her and Yang. I'll have to go back and read over it when I find the time…

Welp, that about it does it for me today! I'll see you guys next time.

-Phailen


	44. Chapter 44

_Mistral Swamplands – Ruins of Mistral Trade Route City – Week 19, The Vytal Festival begins in 14 days_

My steps echoed off the brick-and-mortar walls around me, despite the fact that I was trying to quiet my movements. I could hear my breathing, slow and measured, as well.

There were no other sounds but mine. No other presence but my own.

This place – a sewer, if the smell was anything to go by – was abandoned and forgotten by both the Grimm and the denizens of Liar's Landing alike. And perhaps because of that, there was no lighting system in place nor torches on the walls.

But that was alright, I had my Aura.

Where man once might have feared the dark, I took to it like I had Blake's night vision.

The energy emanating from me lit up the short, arched hallways in a pale, blue light. It provided me just enough of a dim glow to see my next step, no more, no less. It was by the light of my Aura that I was able to keep moving, to keep exploring.

I needed to return to my team, after all. I needed to find them and the airship. And with that airship I could finally, finally return to Vale.

To Phoebe. To mom.

To _home_.

A sigh left me, more weary than anything, even as another one of my footsteps echoed loudly throughout the sewers.

A right turn led me to a collapsed tunnel, a dead end. I turned around and went the opposite direction, where I found a heavy grate that required the use of my Aura to break. It yielded with a shriek of steel on steel, like grinding nails on a chalkboard. The sound was shockingly loud in the sewers of Mistral Trade Route City.

But still, no one came. Nothing disturbed me.

So I crept on.

I might have walked for hours, or perhaps only minutes, time was lost to me down here either way. I could only count the sounds of my steps to estimate the passage of it. When I lost track of those, I tried my heartbeat.

That was much, much easier to track; for the longer I remained in the dismal tunnels, the louder it seemed to become in the all-encompassing silence.

It was only after eight-hundred and ninety-two heart beats that my trek was disturbed.

My foot caught on an upturned stone and my hand darted out to catch myself upon the wall next to me. My fingers made contact with it and very, very quickly, I noticed something different.

The texture of the wall underneath my fingertips was not that of stone. It smudged and shifted, like it was malleable. Like it was…

Like it was a powder.

My eyes narrowed, my heartbeat forgotten, and I leaned closer to the stone, so that the glow of my Aura could illuminate what I was feeling.

Chalk.

It was chalk. Dark and powdery, drawn upon the crumbling bricks with a purpose. There were straight lines and curved ones, fitted together to form a larger picture. One too large for me to see by the dim lighting my Aura provided all at once.

I removed my hand from the wall, intending to step back and observe the drawing, and a flash of purple immediately caught my attention as I did so.

My blood Aura. My Semblance.

There, upon my fingertips, the powdery substance from the wall was slowly, but surely, evaporating into the air.

And where it disappeared, ethereal purple energy floated in deceptively whimsical tendrils of power.

Suddenly, it was not a blue glow that offered me my sight in the sewer, but purple.

'_Not chalk,' _I realized as a grimace pulled my lips apart. My discomfort only grew worse when the smell of rotten blood reached my nose. _'This is dried blood.'_

I stilled for a split second then, paranoia urging me to stay cautious, like my discovery was some kind of trigger for an ambush. My ears – so, so, _so _inferior to Blake's – strained themselves.

But in the silence of the sewers, only my heart answered me.

-_thump thump-_

_-thump thump-_

_-thump thump-_

Satisfied and slightly embarrassed with myself, I returned to the… drawing on the wall.

With one faintly glowing hand raised – my fingertips still burning with the purple Aura – I managed to see in every haunting detail what this blood depicted.

A sun, a bare tree, a snowflake and a leaf. They were arranged in the pattern of a diamond, with the sun at the top of the shape. The image was runny, like the blood dribbled down the wall before it dried.

And then, with a glance to my side, I saw another drawing farther down the wall. This one was just as blackened as the first and its lines ran down the wall too, like raindrops on glass, frozen and dried that way by time.

It too unsettled me.

It took a certain kind of demented insanity to draw _anything _in blood, after all.

But all the same, I raised my hand and studied, ignoring the eerie shadows my Aura produced in the uneven wall.

This picture depicted a woman, a sun at her heart. At her feet, crudely-drawn figures prostrated themselves.

I swallowed heavily when I saw that sun. This went beyond some nut-job proclaiming his or her love for the seasons in an incredibly odd place. This was drawn in _blood_ – even now, I could see the way the liquid ran after the sun within the woman was drawn and it put me off in a way words could not describe.

It was _wrong_, plain and simple. Not on a physical level, but a mental one.

Gooseflesh ran rampant up and down my arms and the hair on my nape stood on end. The air was stale and still and I felt like I was being watched but-

-_thump thump-_

_-thump thump-_

_-thump thump-_

There was no one there. Just me and this drawing of a woman-

No! No… This was not just a woman. She was one of Qrow's maidens. She _had _to be. The four seasons in the previous drawing and the sun at her core suggested that she was the 'Summer Maiden'.

A scoff escaped me. Perhaps this was a lair for those damnable cultists? Those sun-loving idiots…

But still, the drawings intrigued me.

And so, I pressed on.

The next drawing was more foreboding than the last.

Two women stood facing one another. A sun at the core of the first. In the second, the one drawn with sharp talons for hands and a mouthful of pointed teeth, lay a leaf.

Over the leaf-woman was Remnant's shattered moon.

I stepped farther along the wall-

_Crash!_

My heart immediately began pounding and I clenched my jaw, kicking irritably at the rubble under my boot. It used to be a small pile of stones before I stepped on it and sent the material noisily clattering across the sewers.

-_thump thump-_

_-thump thump-_

_-thump thump-_

I pulled in a deep breath and focused upon keeping the purple Aura present at the tips of my fingers. Aura control exercises had always helped me center myself, ever since I began experimenting with the energy as a child. Pushing, pulling, resisting. The versatility of my energy never ceased to amaze me and the focus that manipulating it so finely required never failed to put me at ease.

Just as it did now, even in this horrible sewer.

The calm returned and my heartbeat, at long last, quieted.

'_The next drawing,' _I urged myself, my eyes narrowing and my jaw held rigid.

So I observed.

The next one featured a wall. Atop its spires were multitudes of tiny figures, each with equally tiny suns drawn atop their heads. And on the ground, facing them, were darker, more animalistic forms with leaves over their own heads.

What's more, each dark figure had painstakingly thin lines scratched away from them, like-

_-glowing lines of power snaked their way up and down the Grimm's body, pulsating and shining like some perverted mockery of veins and I heard Yang-_

'_Veins. The glowing Grimm. The __**leaf **__over their heads…'_

They were hers', those beasts. Those soulless monsters that somehow, someway possessed an energy like Aura-

_Wrech._

It could only be _wrech_. The Spring Maiden's _wrech, _no less.

A shiver ran up my spine and my eyes suddenly felt incredibly dry.

If this _wrech _could infuse Grimm with such power… the possibilities were _endless_. It behaved in a way that Aura could not. Would not! Aura was only present in creatures that possessed a soul and the Grimm were entirely soulless! That this power could be gifted to them… It was in a league all its own, capable of giving power to something that was completely and utterly unable to use it.

My eyes narrowed.

_Was _unable to use it. This _wrech, _this magic… the rules by which Remnant worked would be rewritten. The Spring Maiden was able to imbue the Grimm with it, with that damnable energy, and with that single piece of knowledge, my understanding of Aura and Remnant as a whole was brought into question.

How were the Grimm able to use the _wrech_? Was it a conscious decision they made? Did they even _have _a consciousness? What if they were not mindless beasts, after all? Could they be trained and made to obey?

Could _I _train them? Could I make them obey _me_?

Oddly enough, I found myself excited by the possibilities. I found myself wanting to experiment with the energy. I wanted to examine it and study it, poke and prod it until I understood it entirely. Until I subverted it. Until it was _mine _to use. Until it served to protect those I cared about.

Suddenly, I felt inordinately displeased that Ruby managed to convince me to release the _wrech _I took from Emerald's forehead. The things I could have learned, if I only had time to study it!

But that displeasure was put aside when I remembered that Yang had a sliver of the very same energy within herself.

Eager now, my heart beating just a little faster, I moved farther down the hallway. My hand was held above my head like some kind of poor imitation for a lantern and my other one lightly braced myself against the wall.

The next drawing I found showed two women once more, one with a sun and the other with a leaf at their cores.

But in this one, the sun was impaled upon the leaf's claws.

And behind the clawed, sharp-toothed spring maiden, a crumbled wall lay destroyed.

And just like that, in this dank sewer, I learned that the Spring Maiden tore down Mistral Trade Route City and slaughtered its people.

Just as swiftly, I put that information from my mind. It was a mere footnote to what I learned of _wrech _today. Lives were lost, yes, but the dead could do nothing for the living. It was pointless to lament the fate the people of this city met.

My eyes focused upon the next drawing, this one showing the woman with the sun at her core kneeling. Around her, a mountain was drawn, complete with jagged edges made less jagged by the running of the blood used to depict them.

I moved on, my eyes narrowed in the darkness. But still, the blue-tinted purple glow of my Aura was enough.

This drawing, the final drawing, was elaborate.

Not in scope, no. It only depicted a forest and a city. Over the first was drawn a leaf and over the city, a sun.

It was not made elaborate by its contents, rather, it was made elaborate by the detail put into the city.

Lines were painstakingly and methodically drawn, intersecting and flowing in some kind of pattern. It was a circular city that contained more circles and half-circles and triangles and squares within it, all of which I knew could not be buildings or plazas. The lines within its borders moved in ways that streets did not, at angles that would make turning vehicles impossible.

It looked… it almost looked like one of Weiss' glyphs.

It was not as pretty – a thought that made me smile because I was certain my white haired teammate would only turn up her nose at the thought of a drawing made of blood being prettier than her Semblance – but the same circular shape of her glyphs was present. But where the former heiress' Semblance almost always featured a snowflake of some kind at its center, this one featured shapes that appeared to fit together somehow… like a puzzle.

Almost idly, I traced one of the interlocking circles with my finger.

And my Aura… _clung _to the wall after my finger left it.

I blinked, once, and rubbed at my eyes with my free hand. But still, even after I moved the limb away and squinted once more, my purple Aura remained on the wall.

And that was it.

It just… stayed there, clinging to part of one of the drawing's many circles.

A low, confused grunt escaped me. That my blood Aura would behave so strangely indicated that this drawing was more than just a drawing made of blood. Normal drawings did not, _could not_, serve as an anchor to my energy.

This one did. This one was different.

Slowly, I brought my free hand up and summoned some of my normal, blue Aura to my fingertips. It was a gesture that I scarcely needed to focus upon, so familiar was my normal energy, so fine-tuned was my control.

My fingertips touched the lines of the drawing again, but this time there was no glowing energy left behind. The ethereal blue glow left the wall with my fingers even as the purple Aura continuously clung to its surface.

'_Only my blood Aura…'_

Slowly, I exhaled through my nose, returning the hand with my purple Aura to the wall.

Carefully and slowly, almost painstakingly so, I finished tracing the outline of the circle with my fingertip, leaving behind a trail of volatile purple energy as I did so.

When I finished, I did so with bated breath. My finger remained steady thanks only to hours spent in the workshop with Ruby pouring over the forms of Crescent Rose, Aegis and, later, Ultimatum. The instant I felt my purple Aura against my finger – this time an _outside _force, rather than one within – I pulled my limb away from the wall.

And waited.

But nothing happened. There was no explosion or flash of light or even a pulse of energy, like some of Weiss' glyphs could emit.

There was only a glowing, purple circle on the wall.

A huff escaped me and I crossed my arms, scratching idly at the bared skin of my torso. I needed to get a new shirt sometime soon, ideally before Remnant's coming winter froze me solid. It was beginning to get rather cold at night and I did not like the idea of going on without some kind of clothing.

With another frustrated grunt, I forced the thoughts from my mind. Without taking my eyes off the complex drawing, I reached out to one of the earlier ones and scratched away more blood. My purple energy was replenished with the gesture and my mind returned fully to the odd drawing.

But it was not a drawing.

The other shapes on the walls, the depictions of the battle between the Maidens of Summer and Spring, _those _were drawings. They did not react when my purple Aura touched them and none of them were even remotely as complicated as the last one. Someone – or _something _– drew the circle in front of me with a steady, meticulously careful, hand.

'_There aren't even-' _My eyes narrowed and I leaned closer. _'Yes! There aren't even any blood streaks in this one. Whatever this is… it did not run when it was painted on the walls.'_

So it was not a drawing, but it had a _purpose_. This overly complicated circle was on this wall for a reason, drawn so carefully for a reason.

It did not react to normal Aura, to the variety that everyone on Remnant possessed. It reacted to my blood Aura but given the fact that I was the only one who could use such an energy, I very much doubted that the original artist intended for that to be the… glyph's purpose. More likely than not, they wanted for this symbol to interact with another kind of ener-

'_No…'_

I knew of only two kinds of energy on Remnant: there was Aura and there was… well, there was _wrech._ Two sources of power, the latter of which very, very, _very _few people knew about. The person that drew this overly complicated symbol likely intended, therefore, that it react to _wrech_.

To magic.

But that would directly imply that my purple energy was _wrech _too.

Or at least similar enough to fool this symbol.

A breath forced itself from my nose again – I was not entirely happy at having _wrech _in myself… Or, rather, the potential to create _wrech_. All the same, I could not deny that it made an odd kind of sense.

My purple Aura could contain the energy trapped in Emerald's forehead.

It could draw the same kind of energy out of Yang.

But _wrech_ was only ever meant to be wielded by Maidens.

Maidens were, unless I was horribly mistaken, female as a rule.

And I was, unless I was horribly mistaken, _not _a female.

So what, then, was my blood Aura? It could not be _wrech_, magic could only be wielded by The Four Maidens. Yet this symbol on the wall reacted to it like it was that damnable energy all the same.

An uneasy growl escaped me.

I could only assume my blood Aura was something similar to _wrech_. Not necessarily the same, but close enough that it fooled this… whatever this thing on the wall was.

And that was another conundrum, this symbol. But at least _that_ could be solved, right here and now. I might not have all the answers with regard to my blood Aura but I was willing to bet that if I traced the rest of these lines in front of me, I would soon have my answer as to what this thing did.

Without any further thought on _wrech_, I got to work.

* * *

_Several minutes later_

It only took a few short minutes of carefully, slowly tracing the glyph-symbol-rune thing in front of me for something to happen.

I had been moving my finger at a measured pace, my entire body coiled and ready to move at a moment's notice in case the odd drawing did… _something_. And, just as I finished tracing one of the three inner circles present within the larger one and all the shapes within its smaller circumference, something _did _happen.

The entirety of what I traced flashed, once, and…

Nothing.

My blood Aura vanished and the inner circle dimmed once more with nary a sound raised in the process. A full five seconds passed in complete and utter silence, only the occasional _plop _of water hitting stone elsewhere in the sewer broke it.

I even held my breath.

But still, nothing.

My shoulders drooped and I released a frustrated grunt even as my hand, fingertips alight with ethereal purple energy, reached out-

And hit something _solid_.

Not the wall, no. My hand was stopped several inches before I reached the symbol by what could only be an invisible wall.

An invisible wall that _was not there _only ten seconds prior.

A surprised, muted gasp escaped me before I could stop it and I pressed harder against the barrier. My hand met resistance and progressed no closer to the wall and if I were not seeing it happen with my own eyes, I would have thought it impossible.

My hand was being held back by… by…

'_By wrech_.'

No! Not by _wrech_. Not by magic. That energy belonged solely to The Maidens and their fairy tales.

But this…

I finally exerted enough force and, with a startled gasp, my hand broke through the barrier and came to land on the wall with a soft _thump_.

This was my blood Aura. This was all my own.

This was my Semblance.

I could feel it in my bones.

* * *

_Ten minutes later_

I retraced the original, inner circle and tried my damnedest to sear the image into my mind all the while cursing myself for draining my Scroll's charge so thoroughly. I left that inner circle almost entirely complete – the tiniest bit of it left untouched so that it would lay dormant still - and turned to trace the rest of the drawing after that, taking more blood from the previous depictions to fuel my Semblance as I did so.

Lines and loops were filled in and the sewer grew brighter for every touch of my finger. I worked tirelessly, my eyes likely wider than normal in my excitement. My body remained coiled tightly just in case I accidentally trigger another rune within the larger one but my caution proved unnecessary. The other inner circles were filled without a single quiver of light and the triangles and squares and loops in between them were traced the same way. The outer circle followed after that and, soon, I only needed to complete the original inner circle that made that odd barrier.

An invisible wall… I would have thought it impossible had it not happened to me just a short time ago. Never before had my eyes failed me in such a way.

Carefully, after banishing the thoughts of invisible walls and sorcery and reining in my wandering mind, I brought my fingertip up to the rune one last time. The purple Aura clung to wall in the same way it did earlier as I drug the digit over the last bit of the drawing that I needed to fill in.

And then, the symbol was complete.

I released a short, gasping breath and leaned away from the wall just in time to see the drawing flash before it dimmed completely shortly thereafter.

'_Just like the inner circle,' _I noted, taking another step away from the wall and almost sending myself crashing to the ground when the back of my boot hit something hard. I caught myself, though, and-

The wall _moved_.

Before my widening eyes – which were rendered nearly blind by the abrupt lack of light – I saw the wall in front of me shift and move and... It made no sound whatsoever but… but it looked as though it… _melted _into the wall-

Was there an opening in front of me now? Was this some kind of door?

"The _fuck?!"_ I whispered under my breath, my eyes wide and my pupils searching the darkness in front of me erratically.

Finally, when I could discern nothing but all-encompassing darkness, I blindly thrusted my hand out toward the wall, fully expecting it to impact a solid barrier. When it did not, when it continued through the space where bricks rested not seconds before, I staggered forward in surprise.

There was nothing but empty air in front of me. Nothing but darkness. There was no wall. No bricks. No mortar. No rune. No… no _anything!_ It was gone. Vanished.

'_Walls do not disappear!' _My mind raged.

But still, I could not deny the fact that there was _nothing _in front of me.

Nothing but darkness.

I swallowed, once, trying in vain to reconcile myself with the fact that there was no longer a wall in front of me and only partly succeeding.

'_Invisible barriers,' _I thought numbly, inching myself forward on cautious yet sure feet – my training would not tolerate doubt or hesitation. _'Disappearing walls. Just what kind of twilight zone did I stumble into?'_

Despite my unease, I moved forward steadily, my hands held out in front of me. When I reached what used to be the surface of the wall, my mind wavered uncertainly, certain that I was about to run into a hard surface and knock myself on my ass.

Because my eyes told me that there was a wall there and I knew walls were solid-

But nothing ever arrested my movement. I crept forward - _into _where the wall once was - and it only just then occurred to me then to summon my Aura back to my hand.

'_Calm down, fool,' _I chided myself even as the dim glow of my life-giving energy flooded the space around me. My sight returning to me, limited as it was, provided me a much needed sense of normalcy. _'It was… it was as secret passageway. With a door guarded by a… a drawing that somehow, someway managed to make a wall just… disappear. And it went… Well, it went… somewhere, I guess?'_

Yeah, that sounded about right.

"Ruby's never gonna believe this," I murmured, a short laugh of disbelief escaping my lips. The girl was obsessed with fairy tales and magic and wondrous stories filled with impossible things and here I was, managing to stumble upon one such impossible occurrence by chance.

Well, not entirely by chance. Blake's efforts to down the Nevermore certainly helped the building-

"Shit," I muttered, the exclamation quickly swallowed up by the darkness around me.

The girls needed me. They were likely still fighting off the Grimm on the surface and here I was getting distracted by pretty drawings and other… oddities in some forgotten sewer.

My feet quickened, moving me further down the path behind the disappearing wall. This new tunnel possessed walls that were uneven and rocky, not shaped of brick and mortar but, rather, the natural terrain of what looked to be a cave. The ground upon which I walked was equally rough and it made walking in the ethereal glow of my Aura more difficult than it needed to be.

But rocky path be damned, I needed to move fast. The rest of my team was probably fighting for their lives still and the sooner I returned to them, the better.

I spent perhaps another two minutes tripping, stumbling and swearing my way down the uneven tunnel. It was small and confining, for the most part, and it made me more than a little claustrophobic, but eventually it opened up into a larger area. One that was made of-

Light suddenly burst into existence behind me and I whirled around, my arms up and fists clenched, to find-

A torch.

A torch, on a wall made out of solid stone blocks.

And, even as I turned to cast my eyes about my surroundings, another two torches lit themselves of their own accord, revealing the fact that I had literally stumbled into a room to me.

It was a small space, no larger than team RWEBY's first dorm at Beacon Academy. Perfectly square blocks made up its walls, stacked such that not even a single stone was a centimeter out of place. There was a small bed, its sheets unmade and unbothered and still fresh. Next to the bed was a small end table, a book on its surface. Finally, in the corner, there was a wardrobe and a chest of drawers.

It was a dwelling.

Another glance about the room revealed it had a low ceiling, that I was alone within it and there was a door I missed with my first inspection placed along the far wall.

I hummed, nodding to myself as I came to my decision, and moved to the wardrobe and chest of drawers first.

There was no reason to let any possible resources go to waste, after all. If there was one thing my time in Liar's Landing taught me, it was that anything could be used to survive. From the smallest scrap of cloth to the sharpest knife – it was all useful.

There was a small sack propped up against the chest of drawers, looking for all the world like it'd been thrown there and forgotten for a time.

A very long time, if the dust on it was any indication.

I picked it up and went about inspecting the drawers themselves, finding only clothes there. A woman's clothing, if the cut of the pants and make of the shirts were any indication. She looked to be Yang's size, maybe Blake's.

'_We don't need clothes,' _I noted, a scowl on my face. Still, I stuffed some of them into the sack before I moved to the wardrobe.

There was only one article of clothing in there, hanging oddly on a hanger clearly not meant to hold its bulk.

A white cloak, stitched a soft red on the inside.

It hung lop-sided from a lone hanger in the otherwise empty wardrobe, its hood falling awkwardly to one side and causing the entire thing to tip precariously toward me, like it was threatening to fall off at any given moment.

The sight brought a smile to my face.

It brought to me memories of happier times. Simpler times. When Ruby would put all three of her cloaks into the tiny, cramped closet of our dorm room and lament to Weiss, Blake, myself, Yang and anyone else who would listen about how the 'stupid, crummy hangers' would not hold her cloaks right. About how she wanted the stand she had in her room because it never dropped her cloaks. About how annoying it was, having to rehang the articles of clothing every time someone opened the closet door.

I took the white cloak with a smile, rather than a scowl.

Ruby did not have her signature red cloak with her, after all. She did not bring it to the Schnee Gala and maybe, just maybe, this white one would do in the meantime.

That done, I cast one last glance about the room and made to leave-

But my eye caught on something atop the bedside table - the book.

It was plain and maroon, perched precariously on the edge of the nightstand. Next to it, there was a pen, broken in half with a dried puddle of ink underneath it.

Or, rather, I thought it was ink.

Until my fingers brushed against it.

The flash of purple that announced the presence of my blood Aura was meant with eyes widened in surprise and a brow raised by the same emotion.

'_She was writing in blood? But-'_

The runes! The glyphs!

I all but dove toward the book and flipped it open. The first page was nothing but writing, as was the second and the third. The fourth- the same.

Scowling and growling under my breath, I opened the text to its middle and-

Runes!

There were dozens of them. All circular and drawn with a meticulously careful hand. Not a single line appeared out of place and the ink – _'Blood,'_ I reminded myself – was so thin and intricate in some places that I had to squint in the torchlight to make it out.

Then, the ground quivered weakly under my feet and a bestial roar echoed throughout the chambers, emanating from somewhere far, far away.

My eyes narrowed and a growl escaped my throat. Scowling once more, I thrust the book into the sack and threw the bag over my shoulder, vaulting over the bed in the next second and shouldering open the door on the far side of the room in the second thereafter.

A hallway stretched out immediately to my left and I sprinted down it without hesitation. It, like the hallway before the room, appeared to be a natural cave. Uneven walls, dotted by lit torches, blurred by as my feet found purchase on the rough ground and before I knew it, the hallway came to an end.

A large cavern opened up before me, also illuminated by torchlight. The ground of it was cracked and blackened and burned and scalded and patches of the walls were melted completely away. It was fairly tall and very, very wide – wide enough to fit the entirety of Beacon's dueling hall in it and still have room to spare.

As interesting as the battle-scarred terrain was, I took in the sight quickly and disregarded it just as hurriedly.

The only thing I focused upon for more than a half second was the object in the middle of the room.

My eyes lingered on the jagged, orange rock formation – odd and alien as it was – but another tremor in the ground encouraged me to forget about that in favor of a passageway on the opposite side of the clearing.

'_Keep moving forward. Don't look back. Find the surface. Find your team.'_

Without hesitation, I threw myself into a dead sprint, clearing a rather large gouge in the stone beneath me in a single leap. I hit the ground running and darted around the red crystal – there was a darkened shape at its center now, I realized, and the thing was much larger up close than it appeared at a distance… easily twice my height.

That thought was thrown from my mind even as I remembered the drawing on the sewer wall, the one featuring the Summer Maiden held within a mountain.

'_Or a strange gem,' _I thought idly, resolving to let Qrow know about the thing when next I saw him. Let him worry about his Maidens and their _wrech. _I had my Aura. I had the book of runes.

_Magic. _Who needed it?

I vaulted over a pit with unnaturally smooth walls and landed just in front of the passageway, running down it even as my ears picked up something moving toward me.

Quickly.

"Outsider!" The naked woman spat as soon as she rounded a corner in the tunnel ahead of me, her tattoos flashing ominously. She brought up a crossbow, already loaded with a bolt, and turned to yell behind her.

But she never got the chance.

An Aura empowered leap put me within her guard easily and her eyes widened even as she began to stumble backward, her mouth falling open. I paid no mind to her poor battle discipline, instead throwing my fist forward, my hand glowing blue with the power of my Aura.

My clenched fingers broke her messy guard, impacted her jaw and immediately, I knew something was wrong.

Very, very wrong.

Something _gave _in her chin.

I was not new to breaking bones. Cardin's jaw. Neo's nose. I knew what it felt like, I knew the satisfaction that followed it. I knew the grin that would threaten to pull my lips upward when a grunt of pain would escape their lips and their bones would _snap_ – it was a sign of my skill as a fighter.

A sign that I was doing something right.

But this was different.

This was no broken bone. This was no incapacitating blow.

I knew that instinctually, the very second my punch landed on the woman.

I watched, my mind startlingly and frustratingly hypersensitive to what I was seeing, as my fist shattered her jaw and continued on, unhindered, to plough into her skull. My hand sank easily, _so, so, so easily_, into her face. Fingers disappeared behind skin and blood and muscle and cartilage rippled and broke in ways that they _should not ever break. _Past her jaw and her nose, my fist continued, and her eyes were swiftly forced out of her very head even as my arm meant brain matter and continued on to slam against the wall _behind_ the woman, the impact jarring me greatly.

And I flinched.

But it was not my fist meeting solid stone that caused it.

I coughed, choking on my spit, even as the last of the woman's… _insides _splattered against the cave walls and hurtled away from her head. Blood pelted me and the smell of it invaded my nose, nauseating me in a way blood _never _had. I hunched over, bringing my hands up to my mouth-

'_No!'_

I thrust the bloodied one – the one absolutely covered in gore - away from me and glanced down at the ruined body- corpse that I just created. The woman I killed because I expected Aura. I expected _strength! _I did not expect her be without enough Aura to block a single punch! I-

_The cartilage gave and bones crumpled, snapping wetly beneath my fingers even as blood was flung away from the impact point and her skin rippled in a sickly horrifying manner at the intrusion. Skin should not move that way! It was not-_

I turned and heaved, emptying my stomach of its contents even as my clean arm came up to brace myself against the cave wall.

'_She had no Aura,' _my mind hollered again and again. _'No defense. No guard. No experience. Nothing!'_

Even the fool from before had Aura – the crossbow-wielding buffoon in the ruins. Even he was able to withstand one of my punches!

I heaved again, my stomach roiling and clenching and tears forming at the corners of my eyes even as my lungs fought to draw breath against my shaking and retching. I sank to my knees against the wall, my head pressed against the stone, and turned away from the body at my feet.

"I killed someone," I murmured even as my stomach rolled again and I was forced to hunch over on myself. But there was nothing left to retch, I hadn't eaten a decent meal in _days_.

"Fuck," I gasped, closing my eyes and pressing my face against the stone – the cold, cold stone – as best I could. I wiped away the mucus and spit from my mouth-

And promptly sent myself into another fit when I realized it was the gore-drenched hand that did the deed.

"_Fuck,"_ I spat, glaring angrily at the blood even as I forced it to evaporate and give me the power of my Semblance. Only after my arm was devoid of blood and wiped clean of gore did I stop to repeat the process on all the life-giving fluid that had splattered against my torso during the short lived fight.

It was a frenzied action, that transfer of blood to Aura. It was not measured or calculated.

It was born of desperation to _forget._

'_I killed someone,'_ I thought again as I forced myself back to my feet, supporting myself on the wall as I did so. The last of the blood disappeared and my skin was left deceptively clean because of it. I cast a glance down at the corpse then-

And a crossbow bolt exploded against my chest, quickly followed by four others. Their piercing tips did not even come close to scratching my skin, given the purple Aura present there, the product of the dead woman's blood.

'_Dead,' _my mind chanted. _'Dead. Dead. Dead.'_

"Heathen," a man shouted somewhere down the hall, running at me even as I glanced up, wide eyed. He reloaded his crossbow and brought it to bear again. "Defiler! Leave the sacred shrine! Die!"

'_Die! Die! Die!'_

And he fired.

He and his four fellow cultists fired another volley and I reflexively threw my arm out in front of me, a blast of purple Aura – my blood Aura, the Aura created from the _dead_ – ripping free of my fingertips just as my mind connected the dots.

"No!" I gasped, my throat constricted in upon itself in horror to such an extreme degree that the shout came out only as a strangled whisper.

But the deed was already done.

My retort already launched.

My blood Aura thundered down the narrow expanse of the cave, tearing the points of stalagmites and stalactites off the walls and floor as it ebbed and flowed over the rough terrain like the pure ethereal force it was. The crossbow bolts snapped and broke under its pressure when they met it until nothing was left of them but dust and metal bits.

But the wave of pure force, born from the blood of the dead cultist behind me, did not stop there.

Terrible was its power.

Even more terrifying was its resolve.

The cultists were dead, they just did not know it yet.

The blood Aura impacted the lead cultist with a wet _smack _that I truly believed I would never forget. The features of his face simply _ceased _to exist and his bones crumbled under the weight of my power. The purple Aura picked up his entire bulk and bodily threw him backward, limp and twisted and _wrong_, even as it continued on to greet the remained four cultists with its deadly embrace.

They suffered the same fate their brother did.

All five bodies were gathered up by the purple Aura and, with no Aura of their own to defend them, they were swiftly caught up in the cataclysm. Head over heel, they tumbled, their bodies limp and their limbs broken and crooked. They did not have the weight of the Watcher-Grimm to survive my power. They did not have the agility of a huntress or a hunter.

They had nothing. They _were _nothing. Not to me! Not to a hunter!

They were untrained civilians!

…And I offered them only the cold embrace of death.

The purple Aura roared and splintered the cave walls into a smooth surface even as it reached a bend in the cave.

My blood Aura served as the rock, the cave wall as the hard place.

And the cultists were helplessly caught in between them.

The ethereal energy impacted the wall with a deceptively soft, harmless _thump_, throwing loose bits of rock and stone all about the length of the cave. The lone torch that rested against the wall was pulverized into wood dust and its flame was snuffed out quickly, dousing the end of the passage in darkness.

But that did not stop me from seeing the cultists' fate.

Their bodies hit the wall hard. So, so _hard_. One man was impaled by a sharp spike jutting out of the cave wall, his bones broken and his body crushed. A woman landed on her neck and a piece of stone on the floor caught her chin – my blood Aura then _tore _her head from her body. Another woman flew face-first into the wall with enough force to cave her chest in; she fell to the floor with her broken ribs jutting out at angles I did not think possible from beneath her skin. A male cultist impacted the wall head-on, hard enough that everything above his shoulders was rendered a bloody paste.

And the leader, under my own power, skidded across the top of the cave, losing skin and blood and bone as he did. He impacted the bend in the cave near the top, his arm torn away from his torso and his body dropped, limp, to the ground shortly thereafter.

And I fell to my knees and stared.

I knew I would have to kill, being a hunter. I knew it would come eventually, the day where I took another's life. But I did not realize it would surprise me so. I did not realize I would not get a _choice _in the matter.

I did not _expect _my first kill to happen like this.

Blood dripped slowly off the wall, splattering on the ground beneath the corpse hanging from the rock-spear with a wet _splatter._

I shut my eyes.

Everyone I fought before now had Aura. Junior's thugs. My fellow classmates. Neo. Torchwick. The White Fang thugs. Even the other cultist, the one I found in the ruins, had Aura.

All of them.

I did not _mean _to kill these men and women. They did not _need _to die.

The ground shook beneath me and I sank to my knees, my arms wrapped around my torso.

_Fuck_, this hurt. I wanted – _needed _– to move. I needed to find a way to the surface. I needed to help my team.

But my mind was consumed with the memories of the corpses I made. It was hounded by the feeling of blood and bone breaking so _thoroughly _under my fist.

The ground shook again and a roar sounded, vicious and angry and visceral, in the distance.

'_Ruby!' _My mind shouted. _'Think of Ruby! Of your sister in all but blood! She needs you! She- She…'_

_She hummed, drawing my attention back to her even as the trees around Beacon waved in the fall winds. The expression on her face was one I did not remember ever seeing before – a smile, wide eyes and arched eyebrows. Like she was proud and happy all at once._

"_She told me you knew," Ruby muttered, her smile turning lopsided even as she met my eyes. "That you said she should tell __**me**__?"_

"_I did," I confirmed, thinking back to that conversation with Blake over breakfast on our first morning as a team. "I thought you would be- Ruby?"_

_She was hugging me around the midsection now, her arms tight and her head tucked beneath my chin. It was a good hug, this time. No sniffling or tears and she was even mindful of my recently injured shoulder._

_She was happy._

The coppery, pungent smell of blood broke me from my musings even as I squinted through watery eyes at the hallway before me. My stomach roiled threateningly but I clenched every muscle I could to stop it from forcing me to dry heave.

'_Up,'_ I chanted instead. _'Up. Up. Up. Go! They need you! Your-'_

"_-family," I said, holding aloft the cup in my hands._

"_To family," Yang murmured, a grin on her face even as she placed herself on Blake's opposite side._

_The faunus shifted in our arms – mine around her shoulders and the blonde's around her waist. Her mouth was hanging open slightly and her eyes were darting across both of our faces. She looked so incredibly lost that I almost repeated my toast._

_Almost._

_Blake swallowed and, after one last glance at us both, she licked her lips._

"_To-" She gasped and drew in a shuddering breath, leaning into my side and drawing Yang closer to her with her free arm. Her eyes were growing watery and the smile on her face was shaky._

_But it was sincere._

"_To family," she said quietly, her features slackened in an earnest combination of happiness and awe._

Another roar. Another shudder reverberated through the cave.

A growl escaped my throat and I wiped at the moisture in my eyes. My nostrils flared and I pushed myself up, still braced against the wall.

I would not sit here useless. Not while my family fought and died on the surface.

Not after I promised-

'_This isn't for me,' Yang muttered quietly, slowly bringing up the necklace for Blake and I to see. It was a slim chain, golden in color, and at its center rested a tiny bauble._

_A scythe._

"_I don't like how close Ruby came to dying when we were in that warehouse with Torchwick and his buddies. You weren't there, Enten, but that woman – Neo… there's not a single doubt in my mind now: she's insane. She beat Emerald and Mercury for __**hours**__. Hours! I don't know if it was an illusion or not but it definitely seemed real and that…"_

_The blonde paused, visibly making an effort to calm her breathing and pulling at the fabric of her ball gown irritably. She exhaled heavily, her shoulders going lax even as her eyes narrowed. "That scared me. That she could just up and decide to attack Ruby… to attack us… I wouldn't have been able to stop her. They took our weapons. They chained up our hands. They held us captive while she beat two people to within an inch of their lives and not once did she hesitate in doing it! Not once! Not even a grimace or a pause or a… a… There wasn't even emotion on her face! There was nothing! __**Nothing!**__"_

_Despite her best efforts, she was breathing heavily again and when she realized that, she swallowed audibly, piling the necklace into one of her hands. Slowly, she clenched her fist around it._

"_That's why," Yang said, locking her eyes with mine, an intensity present there I had never seen before. "That's why I don't care if you do… questionable stuff anymore. As long as no one gets hurt. As long as you don't knowingly hamstring one of our classmates. As long as the only people you target are the people that tried to hurt __**us**__… I don't care."_

_I nodded slowly, fully aware of just how serious this moment was for the blonde. To say that probably hurt her and I would even bet that she did not really like herself for it either, if the narrowed eyes and scowl were any indication. That she was so conflicted and yet, still so trusting made me want to prove myself worthy of that trust._

"_Thank you," I said quietly, sincerely, stepping forward to hug her about the waist. She, in return, wrapped her arms around my neck._

"_Keep us safe, Enten," the girl whispered into my ear, her voice quiet and thick. "I know there are some things Ruby can't do… Some things __**I **__can't do… Can we count on you to look out for us?"_

_This blonde I was confronted with, I realized with a start, was not the one I knew. The Yang I knew would not plead with anyone, she would not beg or concede anything and yet… here she was, asking me to keep her safe._

_Asking me to keep our team safe._

"_Of course," I promised._

"Of course," I muttered, my eyes narrowing as I finally, at long last, raised myself to my full height. I heard running in the distance, past the mutilated corpses I made not even ten seconds prior, but they were only another obstacle.

Just another threat.

A calm settled over my mind and I welcomed it readily. The coppery tang of blood in the air faded and my mind ceased its incessant howling. No longer did I balk at the sight of the body at my feet. My rebellious stomach stopped roiling. My arms developed gooseflesh and a chill ran through my spine even as my eyes narrowed, intently watching the far side of the hallway.

The running feet belonged to enemies, after all. Enemies that were just another threat.

And I _would _put them down, if they tried to stop me.

Just like I would do for any other threat that went against me and mine. Against my family-

"_I can't say anything to help you, Weiss," I started, ignoring Yang's growl in favor of meeting the Schnee heiress' eyes. "Fear as deep-seeded as that doesn't just magically disappear overnight with some pretty words. It stays with you, always there, forever waiting for a moment of weakness."_

_I shook my head. "All you can learn to do is deal with it._

"_But that's not necessarily a bad thing," I continued when the white haired girl frowned. "That fear is part of who you are. Part of what makes you Weiss Schnee... Now, I can't speak for Blake or Yang, but I'm glad to have Weiss Schnee as my friend. Not Weiss the singer, the dancer or the heiress, but Weiss, the W on team RWEBY._

"_That Weiss, the one I know, has friends to help her through her fears. She has a leader that would readily drop everything she was doing to help out and those other three people on the team aren't that bad either."_

_The Schnee heiress laughed under breath and a small smile broke out on her face. Progress, at least._

"_Besides," I said, fishing out a picture of Phoebe. This was a more recent image that I asked mom to take after the conversation wherein Yang learned that Blake was a faunus – I wanted a photo of Phoebe in Yang's orange beanie and mom delivered. My younger sister had a wide, toothy smile on her face as she stared up at the camera and in her hand was clutched a crayon. A half-finished drawing of a figure with a shield lay on the ground behind her and her ears poked out the top of the orange fabric, carefully modified to allow her to wear the hat comfortably._

_I smiled softly even as held the picture up. Yang made a pleased sound in the back of her throat._

"_Not all faunus are out to get Weiss Schnee," I said, a soft smile on my face._

_And by the way the white haired girl's eyes lit up, I knew she would be alright._

The cave shuddered again and bits of stone and dirt fell from the ceiling even as I turned to regard the corpse at my feet.

'_My team. My team is what is most important here,' _my mind decided even as my eyes regarded the dead woman's body – naked as the other cultist's were – with a detachment for which my mental state was grateful.

'_My team is all that matters. Get back to them. Help them! Protect them!'_

Another tremor shook the cavern and even more dust fell upon my head, but I disregarded it the same way I disregarded my tumultuous stomach. Instead, I thrust my hand out toward the corpse I'd made, refusing to spare it another glance as I did so.

The dead did not care for social courtesies, after all. The dead cared for nothing and energy spent trying to treat them as though they were living was entirely wasted.

It was nothing more than a font of power for me now, this corpse.

And so, I _pulled._

Blood immediately began churning on the body, swaying in an unnatural manner even as it hurriedly threw itself into the air and promptly turned into a glowing, ethereal, purple energy.

And that energy rushed toward me, eagerly answering my call.

It kissed the tips of my fingers and flowed up my arms. It coiled about my neck and curled itself around my torso. My feet were quickly encased by its all-encompassing embrace and all about my head, a visible aura grew.

It was purple.

It was heavy and volatile – such was its power.

And it was _thick. _More discernable than it had ever been before.

The body on the ground grew paler and paler but I did not stop. She was dead and the dead served no purpose to the living.

Until now.

The power about me grew further and further until it was nearly a tangible thing, hanging in the air about me. It ebbed and flowed, wisps of its ethereal presence coiling and shaking in visible waves in front of my very eyes.

And, finally, when the blood stopped rushing out of her veins and my power stopped growing, I turned my purple-tinted vision to the end of the cavern.

There were five more bodies there.

Five more bodies who had no use for their blood.

Their _power_.

* * *

**A/N: **What's up guys!? Long time no see, as they say – the holiday season kept me busy but I'm back with what I consider to be a pivotal point in Enten's time in Liar's Landing.

Runes and mothers and blood, oh my!

Also, before anyone brings it up, Enten is not aware of Summer Rose's appearance. I feel it reasonable to assume that Ruby does not carry a picture of her, given the first time we actually saw the older woman's appearance in the series was when Qrow entered the picture in season three… after we spent two entire seasons with Ruby.

In fact, both Ruby and Yang seemed rather reluctant to share the details of their mothers' disappearances/deaths with anyone (excluding Yang's argument/talk with Blake at Beacon).

Anywho, my point here is that Enten is entirely unaware of just what that white cloak means. It's just another article of clothing to him – the thing he's really excited about is that book filled with odd and promising symbols of power.

Now, without further ado, to the review responses:

**MrtheratedG: **The Adam fight will go differently, mostly due to Blake's new mindset. She's confronted her worst fears now and instead of retreating, she might just _attack_.

**Badgedbadger: **My intent was for the wooden platform upon which Enten was standing to be so fragile that any sudden movement might break it, hence the reason for his lack of, well, movement. It was a tough thing to describe in words, though!

**Some Random Guy: **I had intended to use unique Grimm from the get-go but I like that the newer seasons of RWBY are expanding upon them. Instead of being forced to use something entirely original and risk jarring my readers with the transition between relative-canon and complete-noncanon, I might just be able find a common ground in between the two. And you're spot on with the finale rapidly approaching. It'll hopefully hit in the next 1-2 chapters, unless I get sidetracked… thanks for the review!

**NothingExistence: **You have no idea just how on point your review was! After all, what is death but another obstacle to be overcome?

**Chaotic Hunger: **Malfunctioning computers – been there, you have my most sincere sympathy. It's frustrating to the extreme when a machine just quits working and you get to play twenty questions with something that can't answer you back easily. As for Enten kicking some ass – he's got several bodies' worth of blood Aura now… the ass kicking will commence shortly, and all the moral implications that come with it will follow soon after!

**D. Avenoir: **I know right! Canon had RWBY, JNPR and CRDL… I understand that animation is much, much, much more time-consuming than story writing and that was one of the main things I wanted to improve upon in my story. Beacon was/is a thriving school with plenty of students! Fleshing out those students/teams was something that I went into this story knowing I was going to do no matter what. I'm glad you enjoyed it! (And to be honest, I've always found the anime habit of naming characters as nouns in foreign languages strange… I can't imagine how the Japanese feel when they read about someone named "strawberry" (Ichigo) or a fish-paste cake (Naruto) but I suppose they just get used to it? I don't know!) Thanks for the review!

**Grabblers: **I had to go find your PM – I must've missed it in my email (or perhaps I was just intimidated by its size, not sure!). Anywho, here we go: I appreciate, first off, your compliments regarding my interpretation of the speculative RWBY universe. I had a lot of room to branch out from the canon story – you can only include as much detail as your animation time allows with anime, after all. Hearing that you like what I've done makes me happy! On Enten's semblance, I took great care with making sure it wasn't some kind of 'he disappears with super-duper extreme speed then everyone dies' clichéd ability. I do disagree that it needs to be dual natured, though – he may be both idealistic and manipulative, but the core of Enten's character that I have always tried to focus upon is his need to be in _control_. In this case, in the case of his semblance, he exerts his will over the life force of his enemies. Thank you for your thoughts on Blake – and I'm sorry if this response is somewhat choppy but I'm jumping between points in your PM. She always struck me as a recluse with plenty of emotional baggage. I wanted to show that baggage but at the same time, I wanted to have her overcome it due to Enten's influence – MC's meddling indeed! As for Yang's PoV, you couldn't mean you're expecting me to keep it reserved for the scenes in which she loses her arm, could you?! Never! I would never… alright, so yeah, that's currently the plan. Weiss (and Pyrrha) are two of the characters I am most excited about – thank you for the kind words about their changes! And rest assured, those two are only just getting started… As for the changes with RWEBY, Pyrrha and SDC from canon, well, a lot of those changes will be realized with the invasion of Beacon/Vale. And who says SDC is going down? Enten isn't infallible, after all, far from it, in fact.

Wow – I think I need to break this up into separate paragraphs just to keep my thought process flowing smoothly. As far the Yang/Enten/Raven triangle goes, you might have to end up disappointed on that front…. That said, I wouldn't count out Enten corrupting Pyrrha further just yet :) As far as the rest of the romance department goes, I'll just leave it as this: I have a plan, that plan involves Weiss' revenge on her father. It involves Yang. It involves, to an extent, Cinderfall as well. It's a vaguely hashed out plan at present, but I've found that I write best in the moment, rather than trying to hash out every single little detail. And to the last point (Enten not using his cannon to launch special ammo): that is partly because he has no idea how to make it and partly because he hasn't thought of it. Also, your English is fantastic. Thanks for your review and your thoughts!

**Guest-who-reviewed-on-Nov-1 (because I have no other way to refer to you): **Hierarchies calling their hangouts 'clubhouses' is totally legit. Because words and stuff. It's like a no-girls-allowed club but better because girls are allowed and it has a fancy-pants name. But all jokes aside: thanks for your review. I was especially flattered by your comment on my characters being written so masterfully – realistic characters are something I put a lot – and I mean _a lot _– of time into maintaining. Having that effort realized is nice! I also like the point you touched on later in your review, namely that Enten knows nothing about the world around him. What he does, he does of his own volition and because of his own motives. I meant to make a serious SI/OC fic and I think I've done quite well thus far! That you mentioned there's none of the OOC-gut-spilling scenes wherein characters from the show admit things they would _never _admit otherwise just makes me even happier! That's what I've going for this entire time. I don't want this to feel like a detached checklist wherein the SI/OC goes through the motions of saving Remnant or RWBY or whatever, I want it to be a living, breathing story. That's my goal and I sincerely hope I live up to both my own and my readers expectations. Thank you for thoughts!

**TheNightShinobi: **Thanks for your comments on the fight scenes being spot on – I've never been in the fight myself so I'm going into this essentially blind. Thanks for your review!

**DocKucCRO: **Enten has blade-like edges on the sides of Ultimatum. They aren't _quite _the stabby kind of sword blades and they certainly aren't as sharp as, say, Ruby's Crescent Rose but they can cut if they hit hard enough. Thanks for your review!

**Mcd3424**: I've had plenty of reviewers tell me they hate Enten and keep reading solely for that fact. He was never meant to be the charismatic-never-do-wrong hero. He was meant to be _real_. I'm glad you like (and hate him) as he is! As for your questions: how Enten got to Remnant will be answered in a fashion, eventually. That's actually a rather important part of the story down the line. As far as a secret society of Earthen people on Remnant – sorry, but that's not going to happen here. It'd be an interesting concept but something I do not feel up to integrating into the story. I've enough on my plate with the SDC, Liar's Landing and Pyrrha subplots as it is. And that's to say nothing of the actual overarching plot! Lastly, Enten working with the bad guys is possible… but only if his team benefits from it. And also, only if his team agrees to it. Remember that he operates under a very selfish mindset, i.e. what is good for my team will be done, regardless of what other people think of it. Possible, but unlikely given he cares for the opinions of his team too. Thanks for the review!

**Flux Casey: **Blake's speech patterns were shortened for a reason – the answer to which unfortunately becomes obvious much later in the fic. I know that's not much of an answer but… well, that's what I have! Also, shoot me a link to your podcast if you'd be so kind – I'd like to listen/watch a few! Thanks for your thoughts!

**MomMorganHannahFae: **I miss you too.

**Strikeman: **First off, thanks for your thoughts. You hit the nail on the head as far as Enten's passiveness is concerned. I put him on a team with some of the most hard-headed and well-written characters out there. He was bound to clash with them and, given he more often than not disagrees with all of them, he was bound to be on the losing end of some arguments. He gets his way – sometimes – but so does the rest of the team. I did not want to make this an SI/OC-gets-his-way-because-he's-an-SI/OC fic but in doing that I opened myself up to keeping my characters just that – in character. I tried to find a balance, but I will readily admit that it is hard. Hopefully it'll get better for you from here on out – Enten will be… ahh, growing a little more extreme in his views soon! Thanks for your review!

**Calzifer: **Words are hard man! I can't be blamed if Enten's name happens to mean something in german… I was looking at the Japanese translation of it! Thanks for your review!

That's about it for now. Hope everyone had a great holiday season!

Till next time,

Phailen


	45. Chapter 45

_Mistral Swamplands – Ruins of Mistral Trade Route City – Week 19, The Vytal Festival begins in 14 days_

My steps echoed loudly, so loudly, in the crushing silence that followed my journey through the cave system. Each one brought with it more faces, bathed in the red glow of torchlight. Each one brought me ever closer to the surface and ever farther away from those very faces. Each step reminded me of my blood Aura, freshly drawn from my six… - I swallowed heavily. - my six kills, as the ethereal purple energy agitatedly ebbed and flowed across my body.

The only disruption to the eerie lack of sound were the whispers.

They followed me faintly, only just audible upon the very fringe of my hearing. They were spoken through lips curled back into scowls. Through jaws set rigidly and teeth bared by sneers.

"Murderer," they cursed.

"Monster," they spat.

"Demon," they hissed.

'_So be it,' _I thought, casting my eyes toward a group of cultists to my left. The cloaked figures spat and cursed, scuttling away from me even as their fingers tightened around their crossbows. Their eyes went from narrowed to widened and their rigid jawlines began to quiver.

A sneer of my own formed on my lips.

They feared me, these weaklings.

They knew they could not harm me, such was my power, so they huddled away from me. Away from the demon. The monster, covered in a luminescent purple glow as he was.

And in their fear, a path was created for me. A path to the surface.

But that was not so, not always.

At first, they shot their crossbows and channeled their _wrech_ – the tattoos upon their naked flesh glowed an angry red whenever that happened – but nothing could touch me. The bolts splintered and turned to dust when they met my purple energy. The red-hot fire was smothered, fizzling and dying before even coming close to harming me.

They could do _nothing_. I was a god amongst men. A king among peasants. The sole immortal in a crowd of mortal weaklings.

But their failures did not deter them, though they should have. The fools next tried bodily charging me as I walked between their ranks in their rough, stone-hewn caves.

My blood Aura swatted the first man aside so swiftly, with such a contemptuous ease, that I did not even have the chance to direct it to do so. It was as though he was nothing more than a gnat, a fly, an _insect_ that amounted to nothing more than an annoyance.

He was nothing to me, as was his death.

And that fact - the fact that his demise did not trouble me - only ended up troubling me in turn. Was I so desensitized to death? So soon after having taken the lives of six people that I could have just as easily ignored? Was I a murderer now? A cold-blooded killer? Was it only the first one that would trouble me? Was I truly a monster, now? Was I falling down that slope?

Would my team fear me too?

I did not know. I did not know and I did not have time to stop and think on it either – I had to get out of here, first and foremost. My doubts were cast aside and my fears were snuffed out.

Team RWEBY needed my strength.

So, instead of worrying over just how jaded I had become in the space of ten minutes, I focused instead on Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang. I shoved my doubts aside and concentrated on how their battle around the airship would have lasted thirty straight minutes by now. I reminded myself of the need to return to them, to _help _them. I dwelt upon how very much I cared for the girls' safety. About how utterly terrifying the thought of one of them getting hurt was to me.

I focused upon my future, with them, instead of upon my past, in these caves.

It made dealing with death easier, when I could tell myself that I killed for a reason. It made it easier to accept the blood on my hands when I could convince myself that I killed for _them_. For _their _sake.

It made me feel like I was something more than a murderer.

With a scowl, I threw those dark thoughts aside. I did not need those worries bogging my mind down. What my Aura – my blood Aura – could do now should not be distracting me!

…But still, it was worrying that my power would act without my direction; I _did_ absorb the blood of six corpses though. It was far and away the most blood Aura I ever had under my control at one time. I did not know how it would react- _if _it would react differently to my will in such vast quantities.

But apparently it would, a pitcher could only be filled up with so much water before it began to overflow.

And when my blood Aura overflowed, people _died_.

With a grim frown on my face – punctuated by the tightening of my jaw - I made certain to consciously direct it when the second, third, fourth and fifth cultists charged me, limiting the power with which I swatted them away. They would wake up with headaches and bruises, perhaps a broken bone or two, nothing more.

'_Their deaths serve no purpose,' _I swore. _'Better to keep them alive. Better to keep from weakening ourselves against the Grimm.'_

But really, I only kept them alive because I feared their faces would haunt me from beyond the grave. I knew already that the first six would.

And I dreaded those dreams, those nightmares.

So I held back. I did not care one single whit for their lives, but I held back, for my own selfishness. For my own sake.

And so, finally, after five new beaten bodies – one of which would never rise again - lay slumped against the cave walls, the rest of the cultists got the message.

I _would not _be stopped. They could not harm me. They could not hinder me. Their bolts were useless and their pathetic attempts at channeling their _wrech _were swatted aside with nary a thought. They were the David before my Goliath. The ants before a god.

They could do _nothing_.

They were _helpless_.

Thus, they moved aside.

"M-monster," a woman muttered, her wide eyes darting toward the ground when I focused on her. Her jaw was quivering, her bony fingers clutching at her crossbow hard enough to make even her dark skin turn white. "L-l-l," she swallowed, her throat clenching. "Leave us be!"

"Grimm take you," another man spat, farther along the cave system, after I turned a corner and entered a wider, taller room. But he too shied away from me when I glanced in his direction.

And so it continued. They shivered and cowered away from me, shuffling aside when I neared them. Hallway after hallway came and went. Cultist after cultist shrunk away from me.

Not once was I challenged again.

It was probably better that way, for it was tempting to give into this feeling of power, this heady sensation that made my limbs feel lighter. The way they bowed to me whispered soft, sweet murmurs of how very nice it would be if _everyone _bowed to me in such a manner. Of how oh-so-simple it would be to protect those I cared for, if only _everyone _was scared of me. My family would never be threatened again. My team would live to see their twilight years in peace. I would be able to stop worrying and never again, _never again, _would I see Weiss cry like she had when her father betrayed her.

A scowl pulled my lips downward at the thought – the staccato _tap-tap-tap _of Yang's heels on the metal walkways of the airship punctuated only by Weiss' sobs and Ruby's murmured attempts at comforting the girl never failed to make me angry. I need only dwell on that memory, of Team RWEBY at its absolute lowest, for a few brief moments to make those whispers ever louder. To make their offer all the more tempting.

Safety for my team. My family… We would be happy.

And I only needed to _embrace _this power. I only needed to reach out and take what was mine from the cultists. I only needed their _blood_. Their _lives_.

And compared to my team, their lives meant nothing to me. _Nothing_.

But the fear my power created was a double-edged sword.

Some, it drove to cowardice.

But others… Fear drove others to _action_.

My nostrils flared and my jaw tensed. My fingers coiled themselves into fists at my sides.

That was unacceptable.

_Intolerable_.

I did not allow myself to grow complacent with my power over them; I did not simply _assume _that they would cower away from me in their fear. I kept my tired eyes focused down every hallway I walked and observed every cultist I could, searching constantly for even the smallest hit of rebellion. I needed to start alert in enemy territory. I needed them to know that I was _not _vulnerable.

Many of them shied away from my gaze, their shoulders hunched, their limbs shaking and their heads held down as I paced down hallway after hallway, room after room, cave after cave. But a select few met my gaze. They held their heads high, snarls pulled their lips back and their eyebrows were furrowed over narrowed eyes.

In the face of my volatile purple Aura, I could respect the strength of will it took to meet my gaze. Hell, if I looked even half as intimidating as Yang did when her Semblance grew strong enough to set her own hair on fire, then those men and women who could look me in the eye earned my immediate respect.

And it was because of that confidence that those cultists were the ones to whom I paid the most attention. The angry ones. The ones who were bitter, hateful and vengeful. The ones who might be brave enough to challenge me.

Because fear bred anger and anger bred action.

"Murderer," one the wrathful ones spat, sneering when I looked at her. The flickering light of the torches cast shadows upon her expression, throwing an eerie glow over her curled lips and bared teeth. But despite all my power, she did not cower away from me.

"Spring's dog, you are," another one muttered from my opposite side, eyeing me from under his eyebrows that were whitened with age. He too, stood and faced me.

But there was an oddity amongst the cultists, a man who was neither angry nor fearful of me. This one was neutral and, dare I say it, almost _curious_. His expression jumped out at me from the crowd when I first saw it, so shockingly different that his neutrality earned his face a place in my memory. Eyes open but not too wide. Mouth shut but not clenched or grimacing. Shoulders relaxed and arms at his side.

I paid him no mind, originally, beyond a passing thought that he was simply more curious than his brethren.

But then I saw the same curious face _twice_. The same features. The same eyes and hair and expression. The same _person_ in a completely different hallway.

'_He's following me,'_ my mind realized with a start even as my eyes began to watch a little more closely. Less attention was devoted to the angry and the fearful and it was instead directed toward the curious one.

I saw his bobbing head at the back of the crowds occasionally, moving alongside me. I tracked him for as long as I could even as I took step by measured step down the fire-lit hallways. I would lose him and find him again, sometimes because he even crossed my path ahead of me, but never did I stop looking.

And so, I saw him stop close to another curious face – a woman's - and, soon after, she too would follow after my progression through the caves.

"Demon!" A cultist yelled, jabbing his crossbow out at me – like it were some kind of dagger - as I passed him by. He was disregarded with an absentminded gesture of my hand, a flick of my fingers, nothing more. Purple Aura promptly thundered forth with a force that sent him flying into the cultists behind him and they fell to the ground as a group amidst fearful shouts and curses.

But all the while, my eyes stayed on my watchers.

Their eyes stared out at me from the group of cultists. They were bright, a brilliant shade of blue that stood out to me in the dim, flickering torchlight. They held my gaze for several seconds before they narrowed and disappeared once more, behind the angry and the fearful guises of their fellows.

I had seen those eyes before. I had met those eyes before.

'_I wonder if that was the woman, or the man?' _

But still, my mind spun.

Clearly, my watchers were aware that I knew about them. If they wanted to kill me, then that suggested they were confident enough in their abilities to completely disregard the element of surprise. Either that, or they were so incredibly desperate that they would try anyway.

And if they wanted something other than my death…

Well, either way, I was loath to give them the upper hand. Better to keep them off balance. Better to have them face me surprised and uncertain than confident and on their terms.

Beacon Academy had taught me – and team RWEBY – that much.

That in mind, I summoned up every scrap of willpower I had left in my exhausted mind and took off at a sprint down the hallway. My feet cracked the ground and my Aura tore at the dirt below me, carving jagged lines into the hard stone as it responded to my will and _pushed_.

Cultists screamed and jumped out of my way, cowering and sobbing together, crying out to their summer goddess as they fell to their knees. The angry ones spat curses and waved their crossbows about, shoving past their fellows to place themselves between me and their fearful counterparts.

But I paid them no mind, now; they were mere insects, threatening only if they acted. Instead, I moved on, my Aura lashing out violently around me as my mental fortitude suddenly found a worthy adversary in keeping control over the volatile purple energy while I ran.

The ground cracked and splintered under my feet when I lost control over even a sliver of it. Purple energy carved off pieces of the top of the cave and threw cultists back when they ventured too close to me. This power was dangerous.

This power was strong.

This power, above all, was _deadly_.

The bodies I left in my wake could attest to that nicely, after all.

The hallways bled together as I shot down them, marked by the same torches, cultists and natural stone make-up as they were. I had to have turned half a dozen more times until finally, blessedly, I saw the night sky.

A grin stretched across my dry, cracked lips.

I burst out of the tunnel and into the hollowed out husk of a basement of what once might've been a home. The cold, brisk air greeted me readily and seeped into my bones even as I took in a long, deep breath, the grin growing wider on my face as I did. My mental fatigue fled me and my blood Aura calmed, suddenly, as if it was content being out of that thrice damned cave system. The sight of Remnant's night sky above me and the shattered moon that accompanied it likely helped soothe its rage.

'_Finally,' _I thought. _'Finally!'_

Then, from behind me I heard the shuffling feet of retreating cultists.

'_Right, I'm not done here,' _I reminded myself even as my expression soured. The grin disappeared and my eyes narrowed. My muscles clenched even as I cast a glance about my surroundings for a hiding spot.

Better to ambush _them_ before they could jump me, after all.

There was not much to the area around me. The basement's walls stretched up until they meant the ground and a half-rotten, mostly destroyed, staircase stood in front of me, leading up to what once would have been the first floor of a dwelling. There were chips and pieces of concrete all around me and, in the distance, I could see the skyscrapers of Mistral Trade Route City proper just above the basement walls.

'_I'm close,' _I realized even as my eyes spotted a half-destroyed wall on the first floor of the building, one that would suit me nicely as a hiding spot.

Immediately, I jumped out of the hole to find the rest of broken-down remains of buildings serving as my only greeting. No life in sight, my team included, of course. Still, I held hope-

_Boom!_

'_Crescent Rose,' _I thought, a grin growing once more upon my face. The large rifle was still echoing throughout the ruins, boldly, loudly and defiantly declaring its presence. It reached even me easily, perhaps a dozen blocks away from the battle site as I was.

And with every report, I imagined a Grimm falling to the ground, its twisted existence ended.

_Boom!_

"Fine!" Someone shouted behind me, drawing me from my thoughts and urging me to scuttle behind the wall I had spied. It was large enough to hide the glow of my fluctuating Aura, thankfully, so long as I kept an ironclad control over it. "Grimm take you then! Leave and-"

"We're going!" Another voice, masculine in nature, responded. "And Grimm take your _god_, fool!"

"You dare," the first voice hissed even as I settled against the wall. The entrance to the cultist's lair was a doorway that once might've lead to a tiny room in the basement where a water heater could have been kept. Instead of that, however, the empty doorway only led down into the cave system. It was from their empty doorway that the voices emanated and over this doorway that I placed myself, silent but for the subtle crackle of power my blood Aura emitted when my control lapsed.

And it was difficult to control it, now more so than ever since I had heard Crescent Rose's report.

Already, it had tossed away the loose stones and rubble surrounding me, like its very presence would not tolerate even the most miniscule pest.

"-kill you and yours for even-"

"Do you wish to anger the purple demon, fool!?"

"H-he is gone! He left! The Summer Sun chased him-"

"Your summer goddess did _nothing_! It is only by his mercy that we live! That we still breathe!"

There was a pause in which I could hear nothing but a faint rustling of cloth, then:

"You saw what he did," the same male voice said. "A flick of his finger was all it took-!"

"Vile sorcery! Impure magics of that Spring whore and her lot!" There was some heavy breathing and even more rustling of cloth, this time accompanied by feet slapping hard ground. "You lose your faith after witnessing petty tricks!? You would leave after the Summer Sun provided you her warmth!?"

Silence.

"Leave then!" The first voice shouted. "Leave and never return!"

_Boom!_

My lips twitched upward. Say what you would about Crescent Rose's lack of subtlety – when she wanted to be heard, she _would be heard._

"Th-This is your fate!" The first voice said, amidst nervous murmurs and cries. "The fate of all non-believers! You- You… This is your fate!"

More worried whispers broke out amongst the group and I found myself able to place at least six unique voices.

_Boom!_

This time, a woman's scream echoed throughout the night before it was muffled even as a man swore loudly.

Then, with a grunt accompanying it, something heavy and metal announced its presence to the night with a metallic grinding sound. It sounded like a door mechanism sliding into place to me, a thought proved true when that metallic grinding ended with a loud _clang_.

"The door's shut," one of the voices, feminine, said. Her tone was void of any detectable emotion to me. "The door's shut! We're stuck out h-"

"Don't lose hope now," the first voice, the male, said quickly. "We'll make it through this. We've been through too much to panic now. We're close. We're _so close!_"

"But-"

_Boom!_

Another chorus of frightened murmurs and yells sprung up from within the doorway as Crescent Rose's staccato report echoed throughout the ruins. It shattered the otherwise quiet night rather nicely, I thought. The cultists – _'Ex-cultists, it seems' _– must have thought differently, considering they had not yet left the confines of the path leading up to the basement.

"Hush, hush," another woman's voice said, cracked and gravely with its age. "We mustn't lose our heads now. We will get through this."

"She's right," the male's voice stated, not a quiver to be found in his tone. "We're free. We're out. We just need-"

_Boom!_

The ruins were silent but for Cresent Rose and every time her report sounded, they seemed even quieter in the aftermath. It took the cultists several seconds – long enough for the heavy rifle's sound to fade entirely – before they spoke again.

"W-we just need to find that man! Listen! Li- Sky. Sky! _Please_-"

"D-Dad… Dad!? Are there Grimm out there?"

There was a brief lapse of silence.

The father, the male voice, sighed. "Oh, son… we won't see any Grimm. I promise, okay? And if we do, I'll protect you. I'll kick their butts! How's that sound?"

The boy must've hesitated because the father's voice sounded again.

"Hey, hey," the man said, quieter. "You're gonna be okay, alright? I _promise_. And you know I don't break my promises."

"Y-yeah," the boy answered, sniffling.

"We'll be okay, sweetheart," a woman's voice, the same one that panicked about the door before, cooed. "Just listen to me, grandma and dad and you'll be okay. Plus! Don't you want to see the sky again!"

"Yeah," the boy answered again, quicker this time. "I remember the last time we were on the surface! Dad said _all_ the buildings used to have windows! Is that true?"

"Uh huh," the woman chirped. "Grandma used to have _really, really big _windows in her house!"

"Did you? Were they as tall as me?! Were they as tall as dad?!"

An older woman chuckled and, when she spoke, I placed her voice as the cautioning one before.

'_Four voices, not six. Blake would be disappointed with me.'_

Not all of us had cat ears, useful as they were for listening in on conversations.

"They were _twice _as tall as you, Staerk"

"Nu-uh," the boy gasped. "Can glass even get that big!? Doesn't it melt? Or break?! It's too sharp to fit together!"

"Not quite Staerk," the father responded, sighing. "But you'll see a building soon, trust me. With windows that aren't broken. And walls that are whole and rooms! You can have your own room!"

"I want my own room," the boy affirmed in a matter-of-fact way. "Mom says I can have clothes too! More than one shirt! I want a cool shirt!"

"We'll get you the best shirt on the planet, sweetheart," the woman in question responded. Her voice was no longer shaking and the emotion in her tone, the sincerity in her voice, was noticeable even to me.

"Can it have a hunter on it?! I wanna be a hunter!"

"Of course, sweetie," the mother whispered, so quiet that I could scarcely hear it.

"We should go," the father said then, plunging his companions into a bout of silence. Only shuffling feet followed his statement and, eventually, I heard them approach the surface.

I shrunk back around the wall and crouched low to the ground – the glow from my blood Aura-

_Boom! Boom!_

There was a beat of silence in the wake of Crescent Rose's newest gunshots – made doubly oppressive by the complete and utter lack of wild nightlife in the area, compounded by the all-encompassing darkness that shrouded the ruins – before I heard the boy's voice again.

"Wa…" A pause. "Was that a gun?"

"That's right, sweetheart," the mother answered. "You're so smart! People use those to protect us from the Grimm."

"Oh. Do hunters use guns?"

A branch snapped and rubble shifted on the other side of the basement. My ears, alert as they were, picked up on the sounds immediately. I stilled, quieting my breathing to hear the intruder better, even as the family spoke on.

It was not until a feral huff emanated from the opposite side of the wrecked building that the family went quiet too and I chanced a glance around my wall.

There were four of them, two of whom bore the tattoos. The child and the elderly woman were unmarked and wearing plain clothing while the man and the woman – the parents, presumably – were in the stereotypical cloaks that the other cultists wore. They were all staring away from me, toward the opposite side of the basement, now.

It was because their attention was focused away from me that I was able to step out from behind my wall fully, just as a Beowolf crept out from behind a pile of rubble on the opposite side of the basement.

"Sky," the man barked even as the Grimm rose to its full height – seven feet, nothing impressive to me. "Take Staerk and run. Quickly! Mom, you too!"

"Dad?" The boy asked, his voice higher pitched now.

"I'm not leaving-"

"Go, now! No time for-"

"I'm not leaving you Styrke!"

"Honey, _please! _I-"

_Boom!_

Crescent Rose's report thundered across the ruins and startled the ex-cultists into silence, loud and commanding as it was, but it only drove the Beowolf from its quiet observation of the family and into a frenzy.

The thing reared back and-

I thrust my arm toward the beast and sent a burst of my blood Aura rocketing over the heads of the family. It trailed visibly purple power behind it and reached the Grimm in the time it took to raise its head. The energy caught it on its side and suddenly its entire seven foot bulk was sent spinning to the ground.

All before it could howl.

Before it could call its pack.

The family below me cried out in surprise and began turning in my direction but I was not done. The Grimm was not dead.

And I was not about to let another family lose its father to a Beowolf.

Gasps sounded beneath me even as my Aura-powered leap took me across the basement easily-

But I underestimated the power – and quantity - of my blood Aura. Instead of landing in front of the recovering Grimm, I overshot it.

"Fuck," I swore under my breath, an annoyed scowl tugging at my lips. My feet hit the wall behind the beast instead of the ground in front of it but I angled myself downward, aided by gravity, and blasted off the wall.

It crumbled behind me, the stone flung in all directions by my blood-turned-Aura even as ethereal wisps of purple power emanated out from the point where my boots meant the surface of the wall. My fist thrust itself forward and-

Aura burst from my fingers as soon as they meant resistance in the form of the Grimm's head. What was supposed to be a small surge of energy quickly turned into a torrent that rent the ground underneath the beast to shreds. Soil was flung into the air and purple energy washed over the ground like a wave of water, shaking stone foundations and tossing loose rubble away from me with a concussive _boom_.

As for the Grimm…

It no longer possessed a top half, much less a head. Wisps of dark, shadowy energy quickly began evaporating from its severed waist and I straightened over the corpse, my purple Aura flaring as I did.

"_Awesome!"_ The kid in the basement cheered, his eyes wide even as his mother tried to push him behind her legs. He slipped through her grasping fingers and came around to stand in front of her. "That was better than summer! Was that magic?! That was totally magic, right?!"

"Staerk," the mother – Sky – muttered, glancing down at the boy for a brief moment before turning her eyes back to me. "Let your father talk, okay?"

"But that was-"

"_Staerk."_

A sigh. "Okay."

The father turned away from his son and back toward me even as I raised myself fully off of the rapidly decaying Grimm's corpse. I crossed my arms over my chest and imitated Weiss' heiress look at best I could – her neutrality was something I could handle but the sheer presence the white haired girl was able to exude with an upturned chin and flared nostrils was something I struggled to emulate.

I thought too much to appear unconcerned, she said.

Because I was _always _concerned. Always planning. Always plotting.

Still, it appeared to work well enough on the ex-cultists, shaken and fearful as they were.

I was quite certain the volatile, flaring purple Aura around me helped in that regard. It was bright enough, now that it was no longer behind a wall, to light up the entire area in a soft, violet hue.

'_Who needs streetlights?'_

The father cleared his throat, drawing my attention back to him and his family. "We-"

_Boom! Boom!_

They jumped – all but the older woman – while the powerful sound of Crescent Rose echoing off the ruins of Mistral Trade Route City scarcely made me twitch.

I was too used to the weapon. I knew it too well.

I was too used to battle. I knew it well, too.

"I empathize with you," I muttered quietly, though in the silence left behind after the commanding report of Ruby Rose's rifle, I may as well have been yelling. I felt, more than saw, my Aura lash out at a wall behind me.

The stone yielded and crumbled like it was the wall of a sandcastle rather than hard, rigid stone.

"Remnant is not a kind world. The weak perish. The strong survive. We do what we must to protect those important to us."

Thoughts of Phoebe and mom filtered through my head. Briefly, I wondered how they were doing… I wondered how they were dealing with the news of my new criminal record. I knew our faunus neighbors would band together to support them – it was what we did, it was how we survived – but I still worried.

Oddly enough, the growing radical portion of the population would likely approve of my 'attempt' to destroy Spotlight Citadel, given how taken they were with The White Fang's violent agenda.

Misguided, ignorant and aggressive as they were, those faunus were still useful enough.

So long as they protected my family.

And if they did not?

A sneer threatened to pull my lips downward.

Well, they could be _dealt _with the same way Jaune was. The same way those cultists were.

"You want me to protect you," I continued, shaking myself of my thoughts even as the mother shushed her child when he tried to speak again. The remaining two stayed silent. "I can do that, certainly. These Grimm are _nothing _to me. They can't hold a candle to me. They cannot stand against my team for more than a few brief seconds."

Not entirely true, but they did not need to know about the Watcher-Grimm. Besides, if I had Ultimatum with me, that Beowolf would have been put in the ground at our first meeting.

"But therein lies the question that needs an answer," I murmured, crouching down on the balls of my feet. My blood Aura fluctuated violently as it was compressed, scattering any and all loose debris around my feet. A faint wave of dust blew away from me and I leaned over the edge of the basement wall, looming over them.

_Boom!_

They jumped.

"Why should I?" I said slowly, my voice nothing more than a hiss, now. "Why should I protect you? Why should I expend the effort? The energy? Selfish it may be, I have my own loved ones to care for. What can you offer me?

The father appeared unnerved by me, shuffling closer to his lover-wife-whatever and child now, his voice lost to him. The kid only looked star struck, all wide eyes and gaping mouth at the sight of my blood Aura.

But the grandmother…

"My son used to run electrical wire," the old woman said, shuffling closer to me after glancing briefly at her fellows. Her face was cast in purple-tinted light, the fluctuating of my Aura causing shadows to dance about her old, wizened features. "This city doesn't have electricity anymore – do you know how to fix that?"

She paused and I remained silent, eyeing the woman as she eyed me in return. Her gaze was unwavering and her posture relaxed. She was calm.

In this city, I could respect a mind that remained calm. The strength of will required to resist panic was not to be disregarded so casually.

I offered her a nod.

"My daughter-in-law is good with a sewing needle and I know my way around healing injuries better than anyone else in this dump," she continued, stepping forward again. She was close to me, now, staring up at me from her spot in the building's hollowed out basement.

_Boom!_

I hummed even as the mother jumped. Team RWEBY would need a place to stay while we recovered from our time in Liar's Landing. We might even need a temporary base of operations. The fact that the elderly woman was versed in the healing arts was enough by itself to bring them along with me, that the man knew how to run wire and the woman knew how to repair clothing was an added bonus.

It would be a hassle to protect them while my Aura was so volatile but it was by no means impossible. So long as they stuck relatively close to me and kept their voices down…

_Boom!_

"Come," I said as I returned to my full height.

And so they did.

* * *

_Half an hour later_

"Woah!" The kid – Staerk – exclaimed, pulling himself up to the empty window sill overlooking the battle. "Lookit! She's- _Lookit Mama!_ She's sooooo fast!"

"Yes she is," the woman responded, her mouth hanging open even as she tried to keep her eyes on the trail of red roses darting around the square in front of us. Her hands, already outstretched to pull her child away from the carnage, froze only halfway through the gesture.

We – the former cultists and I – were looking over the very place where I first met that Watcher-Grimm face-to-face.

Spectrum Square.

Ruined storefronts and empty, hollowed-out buildings still surrounded it. The fountain at its center was still empty and crumbling and the statue that once sat atop it, a tribute to Mistral's achievement of building a second city, lay in pieces on the ground, as ruined as the city itself.

Or at least, that was what I assumed.

For I could not see the ground, now. Grimm of all different shapes and sizes covered the entirety of the square. The warhog-like Boarbatusks, the werewolf-like Beowolfs, the bear-like Ursa. They were all there. They were all swarming and growling and howling and roaring as they charged at the airship on the far side of the clearing.

And through it all danced a trail of red rose petals, harmless and delicate.

But in their wake, Grimm fell in droves, missing arms or heads or simply cut completely in half. Those red rose petals followed my leader, I knew, though I could not see the girl at the speeds she moved. I knew her scythe would be in her hands and I knew its lethal edge was finding Grimm after Grimm after Grimm. She darted through them like they were frozen in time, helpless against her, unable to even _react _before she killed them.

Such was her mastery over her Semblance. Ruby Rose did not even need to pause for half a second before she used it again.

A grin curled my lips upward even as my mind returned to the times in our common area, back when we were welcomed in our hierarchy, wherein I would help her compact Aura down into her muscles. The girl once thought it so embarrassing to have my hands on her legs that she nearly declined my help in improving her control over her Semblance.

"Rose petals are sharp!" Staerk remarked, throwing his legs over the side of the second story window sill in which he sat. We were all in the remains of a building overlooking the clearing. "I thought they were just flowers! They're like crossbow bolts!"

"They…" Styrke, the father, hesitated. He was frowning but he squeezed his son's shoulder all the same. "Those aren't flowers, son. I think that's a huntress!"

The boy's eyes widened even as he glanced up at his father. Quickly, though, he returned his focus to the battle below us. "Like in the stories!? A real one!?"

"A real one," I confirmed, the child's enthusiasm finally urging my lips upward into a full grin. "That's my leader, kid. Ruby Rose."

"_Wow!_" The kid yelled even as his mother woke from her trance and pulled him into her arms. He went without protest, focused as he was on the carnage below us. "She's so fast!"

I released a snort even as my mind went to thoughts of Phoebe. This boy shared her excitement. "If you look closely, you can see another one of my teammates down there too. See the shadow? It's over- Over there, now! By the remains of the statue."

Staerck narrowed his eyes and leaned toward the clearing, his head swiveling across Spectrum Square.

"I can't," he complained after a beat, his mouth curling into something between a scowl and a pout. "There's a bunch of shadows!"

"Hers is the one that moves," I whispered, following my faunus teammate's progress with my eyes. She and Ruby were thinning the Grimm horde quite nicely.

"She's not there!"

"Sweetheart!" The boy's mother said, frowning. "If, um… If he says-"

"Enten."

She glanced toward me briefly, refocusing on her child just as quickly. "If Enten says she's there, then she must-"

"But I can't see her!"

"Do you want to see her?" I asked before Sky could get another word out of her mouth.

Staerck nodded hard enough to nearly dislodge himself from his mother's arms. "Yeah! If she's there then I wanna see her! And those other people too!"

'_Those other people,' _I thought, another grin pulling my lips upward. The rest of my team and team JYDE were clustered around an airship on the far side of the clearing. They were the main target of the Grimm but the beasts were making little to no progress in reaching them. The airship itself was parked up against the ruins of a building while Yang, Weiss, E, Legione D, Jayd and Ye'lo fought off them off on its other side.

It felt good to see them – all of them, including team JYDE – alive and well.

"I'll get their attention," I said when the boy waved his arms at me, growling in his impatience. "Just wait-"

A screech, loud enough to eclipse the cacophony in Spectrum Square, sounded from somewhere above me. I turned around and raised my head, finding a large Nevermore bearing down on the clearing behind me. The bird was big, as big as a two-story house, even.

A scoff escaped me even as Staerck shouted a wordless yell of fear and tucked his head into his mother's neck. The father swore under his breath and the grandmother – Stille – cowered closer to the ground.

But me?

I brought my fist back and prepared my blood Aura.

Because this bird had _no fucking clue _what I could do.

The monstrous beast grew closer, closer still, but I waited. I waited even as I saw purple crescents of energy arc up at it from the clearing behind me. I waited even as it screeched and dove toward the airship.

I waited until it passed just above me, close enough that I could jump up and touch it.

Then, I howled a thoughtless, wordless yell and thrust my arm upward.

Purple Aura crackled and sparked and spat when I released it, answering my call with enthusiasm reborn in its sudden freedom. It hurled itself up at the avian Grimm in a menacing wave of ethereal power, casting alight the second floor room in which I stood with a purple-touched glow. Stone walls crumbled away from me in the aftershock of the attack, unable to withstand the pressure, and my limbs shook under the influence of my own power. The family that was traveling with me found themselves knocked to the ground.

And, for just a split-second – the time it took my Aura to reach the beast - Spectrum Square stood still.

It was as though the mass of purple energy stunned its occupants into silence. As though human, Grimm and faunus alike knew just what that energy could do. Perhaps it was something I imagined, perhaps not.

But either way, every single occupant held its breath while I watched my attack arc upward.

Then the Nevermore collided with my blood Aura as though it were a solid wall of steel, stopping dead in its tracks and crumpling in on itself in the face of the opposing force. The energy overpowered it entirely, rending black feathers from its wings and cracking open its bone-white armor.

It shrieked. I imagined it was half-enraged, half-panicked, and immediately, it began to fall. Its bulk spiraled and flopped toward the unforgiving ground. Its wings were bent and broken. Its armor, sundered.

It was my prey, nothing more.

But as it fell, I realized I could still feel my blood Aura.

Dense and thick as it was, I could feel the energy that saturated the air so heavily. I felt like I could reach out and touch it, _control _it, like I could with my normal Aura. Like this giant Grimm was nothing more than a pencil that I used to practice my control.

A grin split my lips and I grasped the power, pupils widening in my exhilaration. I seized control of it fully and completely and it submitted to me at once. Awareness flooded my mind and I suddenly gained an extra limb, and extra limb that could feel the power fluctuating through the air. An extra limb that held strong and fast despite lacking a physical form. An extra limb that, within its grasp, held a Nevermore that easily dwarfed the airship in which team JYDE traveled here.

Never before had I been able to control a creature so large. Even now, its wings flapped and its body flopped about in the air like a fish out of water; it was so utterly and completely _helpless _under my control, unable to move. Unable to enact its will upon anything.

It was truly _helpless_.

And I did not toss that word about lightly.

"Enten!" Ruby's voice shouted behind me. It was high pitched and jubilant, as close to squealing as I had heard since she last saw fresh strawberries. "I saw- _Woah!"_

I ignored her, instead tightening my fist and securing my control over both the blood Aura and the Grimm. As though it sensed my will, the Nevermore thrashed about once more, its wing coming into contact with the building across the street and demolishing two entire stories of it.

"Is- Are you?" My leader babbled behind me. "It looks like its swimming…"

Again, I ignored her in favor of my prey.

With one more wordless yell, I grit my teeth, clenched my eyes shut, focused the entirety of my will and _pulled_.

I pulled on my blood Aura. I pulled at the Grimm. I exerted my will over the energy, swung my arms over my head and slammed my fists straight down onto the unforgiving ground.

And, like a marionette on its strings, the Nevermore followed my arms. It followed my Aura. It followed the channel of purple, ethereal, crackling energy that drug its flailing body down to Spectrum Square. It followed the force that robbed it of its flight and took from it its control.

Instead, that purple force thrust the Nevermore into the ground at the center of Spectrum Square.

It hit the cracked pavement _hard_, throwing aside smaller Grimm and rubble like they were nothing more than ants. So intense was its impact that those very Grimm were tossed into buildings several blocks away. So strong was its descent that my purple Aura washed over the stone in the Nevermore's wake, tossing aside even more Grimm until an area twice as large as team RWEBY's apartment was utterly devoid of anything but cracked stone and upturned dirt, the massive bird's corpse dissolving at its center, its neck broken so severely that it was nearly decapitated.

And again, Spectrum Square stood still.

The Grimm paused, dazed and bowled over by the explosion of volatile energy in their midst. Those of teams RWEBY and JYDE around the airship paused, frozen in their surprise. Their figures were stuck in battle stances, their weapons hanging loosely in their fingers.

Except Weiss and Yang. Even now, I could see glyphs appearing all around the stunned Grimm. Those glyphs were quickly followed by a blazing yellow fire.

Other than my two teammates, nothing moved.

Other than my two teammates, nothing made a sound.

And then:

"That was _SO. COOL!_" Staerk yelled, struggling now to get out of his mother's grasp. The woman's eyes were wide and her jaw was hanging open but still, her hands kept ahold of her son. "You were like- _HAAAA! _And the Grimm was all- _ZOOOOM! _And then- _BOOOM!"_

The kid finished with an excited shout and thrust his hands into the air. He hopped up in his excitement and nearly head-butted his mother in the process.

"That was-" His eyes widened further when they drifted over my shoulder even as the Grimm in the clearing below us began to growl and roar once more. Oblivious, or perhaps uncaring, to the carnage beginning anew below us, Staerk thrust a finger at my leader. "You're Rudy Robe!"

The younger girl in question blinked once, then twice, and turned away from Spectrum Square to look toward the boy. "I'm- My name is Ruby Rose," she muttered absentmindedly, brushing away a sweaty lock of hair from her face as she turned to look at me. Crescent Rose swung about idly in her fingers. "That's a lot of purple…"

"Ruby Rose!" The boy affirming, nodding as he did so. He then thrust his pointing finger past me. "And you're the shadow!"

I turned to find Blake standing some distance behind me, her arms crossed under her bust. Over her shoulder, the shadow loomed, its face as empty and as black as the void itself. Staring into it was like staring into a… a piece of _nothing _that seemed to stretch on forever; like Blake's Semblance itself never ended, like I could reach out to touch it and my fingers would only disappear into its depths.

The girl cleared her throat, drawing me from thoughts, even as the feline ears atop her head twitched. I moved my eyes away from her shadow eagerly, instead focusing on her face.

Her eyes - one blue and one yellow - blinked slowly.

Then, a small smirk formed on her face and I found a matching one pulling my own lips upward.

"Lieutenant," I mouthed.

"Inventor," she mimed back.

It was so _good _to see them unharmed.

"We uh, We need to get to the airship," Ruby muttered behind me, her hands beginning to tighten around her rifle-scythe. She cast a glance over her shoulder, eyeing the large crater left behind by my attack on the Nevermore. "That was a big Grimm… Bigger than the one during our entrance exam."

"The bigger they are, the harder they fall," I said, grinning at the girl. She blinked and, when her eyes refocused upon me, they gained a new kind of clarity. It was as though she had just woken up from a long night's sleep. She snorted then and rolled her eyes; I wrapped my arms around her midsection and squeezed her to me, just enough to pull her feet off of the ground. "It's good to see you again, Ruby."

"You too," the shorter girl grunted, returning the gesture as best she could with her free arm. She was missing a sleeve on her hoodie and her skin was sticky and slick with sweat. "Can you let me go? Your Aura is all weird and heavy!"

"Sorry," I murmured, tossing another smirk at Blake as I did so. The faunus returned the gesture, placing a hand on a cocked hip. "A lot has happened- We can talk about it later, though… for now-"

"For now, we need to get out of here," Ruby agreed, nodding even as she planted her weapon in the ground. Its blade cut into the building easily and the rifle-scythe was suddenly standing upright without assistance. "Team EDJY came with our weapons and an airship. We can escape to the CCT tower Blake and I found earlier."

"EDJY?"

"Team JYDE's new name," Blake informed me, stepping forward. The family that came with me from the caves remained silent, even so, the cat faunus' eyes glanced over them before they returned to me. "Estate leads them now."

I grunted. "Good on her. She has the backbone that Jayd lacked."

"Yeah," Ruby chortled, giggling under her breath. "Yang can tell you _alllllll _about that."

Blake smiled and I found the corner of my lips twitching upward too. It was good to be back with my team – a relief, even.

Then, my leader sighed. "Speaking of Yang, we need to get back down there and help her." She paused, reaching for Crescent Rose even as she turned toward the family that followed me. Her weapon was brought up to rest upon her shoulder. "My name is Ruby Rose, and this is Blake Belladonna. We'll protect you, so don't worry, okay?"

* * *

**A/N: **This, I realized about half way through proof-reading it, was a filler chapter. It's a necessary bridge between Enten's adventure through the sewers and the rest of the arc in Liar's Landing/Mistral Trade Route City Ruins but nothing really gets done, plot-wise, here. For the most part, I just wanted to expand on how powerful the blood Aura is and just how costly it is to acquire enough of it so that it _becomes _that powerful.

The next chapter will be much of the same, for better or for worse. I'm planning on making it more light-hearted. Fluffier. Something to distract and remind all of my wonderful readers that team RWEBY is still alive and well despite all the crap that's been thrown their way recently. Prepare yourselves for the feels!

And after that… well, let's just say my plot begins in earnest. Weiss will find herself at the center of yet another catastrophe and Beacon is looking very, very, _very _vulnerable right now to certain elements of society. And wouldn't you know it? Team RWEBY never stopped those elements from moving forward with a certain plot that involved a train… Instead they were dealing with Ozpin's covert missions to disrupt The White Fang and a ball that Enten roped them into.

If I had an evil laughter emoji, I'd use it here.

Anyway, expect the next chapter soon. I move to a new apartment in about a month's time and I plan on having it out before then.

Now, if you'll allow me to indulge in a little patting of my own back for a moment, I have an announcement to make!

**MrtheratedG**, a reader who has been with me nearly from the very beginning of this story, has made a chibi-fied version of Retieration's characters! He did so with my express permission and I'm quite happy/amused with the first chapter (Ruby's cookies will win out over Nora's pancakes!)! Give the story a shot – it's called **RWEBY Chibi** and appears in his profile.

And lastly, but certainly not least…ly, to the review responses!

**Guest: **Love you too, bae. Glad your hatred of OCs ends with Enten!

**Cl0ud-0: **I usually don't respond to reviewers when they're in the process of reading through the fic (I know it's a doosy), but your first review made me laugh. I put realistic character progression up there in the summary for a reason! Clearly to attract people like yourself!

**Saberswan: **Consider your bribe successful. New chapter: uploaded.

**Arkraiththeepicbrony: **I'm no professional author, though I've been tossing the idea about recently. Also, the RWEBY name was born before I realized I could mix and mash partner names within team names . Thanks for your review!

**Xcantax: **This. So much this. I put Enten's mental breakdown in that last chapter over killing the cultist because _he has never killed before. _He's mentioned that in passing before but this was my chance to bring it to the forefront of the story. He's willing to do whatever it takes to keep his loved ones safe but… well, no one said it was easy. Thanks for your review!

**Some Random Guy: **I was hoping the backstory on the maidens would be a nice touch… don't worry, they will return before we leave Liar's Landing! That's part of the new catastrophe that Weiss finds herself at the middle of! Also, not to worry… Enten (and Weiss) will be investigating runes/glyphs and their uses extensively in the next few chapters. That will actually be one of the main plots for the remainder of the story… because why not fight _wrech _with _wrech_?! Lastly, I hope you're satisfied with the blood Aura in this chapter. It's certainly not god-like power and comes with its own drawbacks… but damn if it isn't powerful…

**New Guest 1299: **First off, love the name. Second, glad I could draw you into the OC fold! It's a hated genre mostly because of those reasons you listed in your review – namely the fact that they quickly become overpowered badasses who don't affect the plot line of the canon story at all. Booooooring. Glad you're enjoying the story!

** : **My Spanish is more than a little shakey, but here we go… Mi primera foco para esto fic fui Enten y sus dudas. Su realismo. Querio cambiar RWBY y sus cuento con el y espero haberlo hecho!

**Grabblers: **You hit the nail on the head with your theories of Enten's Semblance and why he has it. It's not quite Aura – so Grimm can be infused with it – but it's still able to be controlled. As for the runes… how do runes/glyphs function, if not by drawing power from their source? Weiss' source is her Aura through her Semblance, but Enten's source to power the runes/glyphs… well, that's a little different. As for the cultists being civilians – remember that not all people adhere to an ideal out of fanaticism or belief in said ideal… some only do it to survive. Lastly, Yang losing her arm doesn't have to have anything to do with Blake and her quest against Adam… Enten has changed a lot already, who's to say he can't change team RWEBY's fate in the battle?

**Serenarey Chiba: **I live to clog up your inbox As for Wenten… well, I like the sound of that nickname.

**Howling Armadillo: **Hagel will get his but your right in that the Beacon plots will be finished out first. Cinderfall won't exactly wait for grudges to be solved before she launches her attack, after all – she doesn't give two fucks about RWEBY's interactions with the Schnee family.

**Dat reviewer tho: **I disagree. Without an OC who can at least stand up to the main characters of the canon plot, why have an OC story at all? Elsewise, they'll just fade into the background and the canon story will repeat itself… Sometimes, you've got to step out of the box and venture into the unknown. Enten won't be all-powerful, he'll still have faults and people will still be able to beat him (Neo, Watcher-Grimm, even the rest of his team), but he'll have enough power to make a difference. And that's what really matters.

**The Brutal Demon: **Enten can control blood. To what extent is somewhat up in the air right now. He's only acted as a living blood bag to Yang and pulled blood from corpses that could not resist him thus far. As for Summer… that'll be explained in the next few chapters, don't you worry!

**D. Avenoir: **I do not share a nationality with any of the languages used outside of English! I've studied Spanish for nearly six years but beyond that, I've only got the one language with which I can communicate. And really, my Spanish is only brokenly passable… I can communicate in basic sentences so long as you give me a few seconds to come up with the translation. Thanks for the review!

**Preturabo: **Melkweg does indeed mean Milky Way in Dutch but Enten Melkweg was not his given him. He took his family's name when he was adopted… Enten (and his blood last name) is actually a Japanese translation. Thanks for the review!

**Edit (02/25/2017): **Changed Staerch to Staerk - I had the name of the child right at the beginning of the chapter but began using an incorrect one later one.

Till next time guys!

-Phailen


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